Earlier, in one of Larry's threads, I commented that I once had a scare with rabies and that the waiting was the worst part. In those days you had to wait for test results to come back and that took 24 hours. It was a rather long 24 hours.

Someone then commented that if I had been given a shot of some sort of serum I would have had no worries. The only problem with this is that I did not have twenty years to wait for the serum to be developed.

Modern medical stuff has come a long way during my lifetime. A friend of mine once stepped on a nail, three weeks later she was dead. Hey, tetanus shots cost money and folks in my part of town didn't have much.

During my rabies scare you found out if the beast was rabid and then you started a series of painful injections that lasted for thirty days. Then you might live, but there were no promises made.

I sometimes hear folks say they wished they lived 100 years ago. Well, take off! Central America is not that far away and if you find civilized world too close then just keep walking towards the jungle.

1913 is just a few miles inland.

I am aware of rabies TREATMENT, but as far as I know there is no vaccine for humans. Whoever spoke about "some sort of serum" may not know much. The treatment for rabies has been around in one form or another since Pasteur.

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Yes, I was basically talking about the injections (the modern ones are supposedly less painful), but I thought either version was generally pretty effective if started immediately.

There is also human rabies vaccine, but it's rarely used other than with animal workers or people traveling abroad where rabies is common, but treatment may not be immediately available. The "treatment" injections are a fast acting immunoglobulin.

Hmm - TSOR says that a few people have actually been cured of rabies after symptoms showed up, but that this is still rare and experimental.

I was made aware, at the time, of some kid in Brazil that had been cured of rabies, but since this was the first time in human history this had taken place, and I am more of an oil person than a Doctor, I didn't really know what to make of it.

My routine now is to avoid wild animals and to never go into the woods with out Mr. Browning Hi-Power in case I need some additional help with a curious creature.