What does Rabies do? Week 17

 Hello!

I'm currently recycling ideas from the past. The next idea is about rabies, a viral infection that is nearly 100% fatal. It is among the most fatal diseases to ever contract. But how does it work? 

Rabies is transmitted through noth humans and animals. Let's see what it does to someone's body.

The virus that causes the disease is a lyssavirus. Lyssaviruses spread through saliva of  animals. The animals that usually transmit their rabies filled saliva are dogs, raccoons, bats, and foxes. It has other causes but mosr of the time, however, it comes from animal bites. Lyssa means "rage" which will make sense soon.

The virus is neurotropic and aims to reach the brain/the nervous system. Once it gets into your body, it automatically prepares to enter the brain. Immune cells are blind to the rabies virus because this virus multiplies slowly and steadily.

Once it reached the brain, it is almost always over for the thing it is infecting. The immune cells could not go freely inside the brain because that could cause dangerous, unwanted problems. The viruses mess with the brain cells and the brain shows behavioral symptoms such as anger, anxiety, confusion, and hydrophobia (fear of drinking water). 

The virus then leaves the brain and then goes to the salivary glands predominantly to spread more. The symptoms from the brain makes the infected organism want to bite and thus, the saliva spreads the virus to other living beings. 

The Immune System only recognizes the virus when it is already well established. Eventually, the organs will fail and death will typically come in a few days. Rabies, however, have been controlled in the last few years and decades. It is possible to stop it before it reaches the brain, which is the focal goal.