The Victorian War on Rabies | Hacker News Reader

The Victorian War on Rabies

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25 pointsbenbreen21 comments

Strange article. So much focus on dogs with only one mention of bats who are the primary carrier and spreader of rabies.

The first recorded rabies from a bat was in 2002 so not that surprising that it wasn't a focus on victorian England.

The Vampire Bat Link (1911): The very first connection between bats and rabies was made by scientist Antonio Carini in Brazil. He discovered the virus in cattle that had died from a paralyzing sickness after being bitten by vampire bats.

The First Confirmed Bat (1921): Researchers Haupt and Rehaag officially confirmed rabies in a bat captured by a farmer. The farmer witnessed the bat biting a calf.

The United States Discovery (1953): Rabies virus infection in insect-eating (insectivorous) bats was first recognized in the United States in 1953.

You make a good point but your year is off. For the purposes of the article though it should have been more evident. Other animals tend to get it from bats because bats are the primary carriers. They didn't understand that back then but we do now and it's worth talking about.

I think they were citing the first human case of rabies transmitted by a bat, not the first case of rabies recorded in bats.

Dogs were seen as the main vector right into the 1980s. Rightly so. A dog is more likely to attack you than a bat.

But dogs typically get it from the bat. I don't understand the logic

Bats carry, but don't develop rabies so they don't usually attack dogs on their own - except for self defense, when they're attacked by a dog.

Rabid dogs are typically aggressive and spread the infection on their own.

That wasnt my point. Bats are known incubators for rabies because they are immune to it but still carry it. Dogs find the dead bats and get infected, just like other animals. They see food, they eat it, they get infected. The root cause here is the bats but everyones hyper focused on the dogs for some reason.

Dogs are a lot easier to catch than bats and bats don't belong to anyone, so there's two more reasons for you.

There have been very few cases of rabid bats in the UK, if any.

There was one a few years ago, but it is very rare

Maybe you didn't read that it was the history of how Britain eradicated rabies?

For most of history until the rabies vaccine if you got bit by a dog there was a 5% chance it killed you unless you amputated the affected limb.

These are very high stakes for a dog bite.

I've been bitten or attacked by dogs multiple times. Can't say the same about bats. Maybe vampire bats but I have never visited their range.

I am surrounded by dog owners, and most of them are terminally stupid dog owners, and that is why they "own" pets rather than having children, because CPS would probably take away humans in a heartbeat.

My human neighbors cannot be trusted to scoop up the poop properly, nor keep their mutts on a leash properly, nor stick to the approved areas for walking them (and we really do have a walking/jogging path).

There are generally two categories of furbabies here: toy-sized dogs which will yap and bark at anything, literally anything that they perceive, and do it all night. And the other category is a dog that is at least partly some aggressive species, and obviously being kept as a guard/defense dog for the vulnerable owner, and the owner barely has any control or authority over that dog. If such a dog gets off-leash I would fear for my safety.

In peacetime and without civil unrest visiting my community, this is all a non-issue for us, and dog attacks do not really seem to happen around here. But it would only take a little bit of hostility for these idiot neighbors to unleash their dogs and bid them attack any innocent bystanders, and I would fear for my safety.

I am fully vaccinated, but the blood & trauma of a vicious dog bite is no trifle for me. And it would be impossible to hold an "owner" accountable for any "accidental" attacks.

I've been bitten by dogs a few times. Usually it's a small nip, but in one case a dog bit me when I was going along a road (and got chased off by another!). I was lucky it wasn't worse.

It's not that hard to understand.

Humans rarely get infected by bats.

Bat populations are large and not practically reachable, so vaccination is impractical. Eradication is undesired because they serve a useful niche in our ecology.

Dogs are the primary way humans get (got? with higher vaccination rates for dogs this has been skewed, like how the most common causes of death have changed as things like antibiotics were developed and various medical interventions for certain cancers and other conditions) infected. Dogs are typically socialized, so vaccination is practical. Dog populations are smaller and generally reachable. Feral dogs can still be a problem, but catch & release with vaccination and sterilization can reduce their population and risk factor over time (similar to what is done with cats).

So if you want the highest impact intervention, between dogs and bats the place to intervene is the dogs since you cannot, practically, intervene with bats (by vaccination or eradication).

Dogs were the #1 way for humans to catch rabies for most of human history, which I didn't realize until I read Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus.

They likewise didn't focus on virus theory, which was also unknown to Victorians.

It's as if the article focused on the Victorian war on rabies.

We're in a prolonged guerilla conflict in Canada. We are winning but the end is not in sight yet.

In Ontario every year the Ministry of Forestry distributes several million doses of rabies vaccine for wildlife. The goal is to immunize the majority of skunks, foxes, raccoons and the like, particularly in populated areas.

They air drop edible pellets with the live rabies vaccine; they are labeled "do not touch do not eat" because it can vaccinate most susceptible mammals, including humans.

Maybe I am stupid to have to ask this, but what's the problem if a human gets vaccinated by accident?

The pellets can cause localized infections or rashes to humans. More dangerous to certain groups like small children, pregnant women and people with immune system issues.

The live adenovirus (engineered to express a rabies protein) is not entirely safe. It won't give you rabies, but it does infect you. For wild animals, it's ok if some small fraction die from it.

They should spread some of these around my town in central NY; we've had rabid animals recently (cat and fox).

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