BrainWave

Today is World Rabies Day.  To many Neurologists, no other medical condition can ever be more dreadful and most dismaying to manage as rabies. For me rabies has no competition. My lowest moments as a Neurologist have been at my encounters with rabies patients, especially children. It is a death sentence carried out with ruthless execution. None has survived in my watch. Despite the advances of medical science, mortality from rabies remains 99%. Most fatalities from the viral encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) occur in Asia and Africa, with India having the highest case fatalities (> 20,000/year). In the Americas and Europe other animals apart from dogs (bats, foxes etc) are involved. In Asia and Africa dogs are the major culprits.  The action of health workers to rabies patients alone kills the spirit before the virus kills the body. All due to the known fact that they are most infectious at that moment and no therapy is available. It can be traumatic for th