>>508702632>It's a marvel of evolution really.It's also the only virus that is 99.99% fatal to humans. People have survived Ebola and Marburg, where a good part of your organs turns to slush, but rabies, save for a one-in-a-million abortive fluke, always kills the host. And it's an agonizing death, one of the worst ways on earth to go.
That's why there are no counterindications for rabies shots; they can even be given to newborns. The alternative is fucking horrible.
>>508704041>>508703616The trick with rabies is that your immune system CAN fight and kill it, the problem is that by the time it starts to react, it's too late as the virus has reached the brain. So the rabies vaccine works by introducing huge amount of deactivated rabies virus into your bloodstream, your immune system goes "What the fuck" and starts wiping it out, along with the real virus that's multiplying in your nerve tissue. The process takes about 12 days since the first shot and needs to be reinforced 4 times over a month, increasing the force of the immune response to make sure none of the virus remains. If you got bit close to the brain (face or shoulder), you do not have the luxury of 10 days; you get immunoglobulin in addition to the vaccine, which is basically ready-made antibodies that keep the virus suppressed until your system learns to deal with it.