Lyssaviruses

Lyssaviruses are the etiological agents of rabies, one of the oldest documented and feared maladies in medical history. The last century has been particularly fruitful in regard to progress in Iyssavirus phylogenetic affinities, diagnostics, pathogenesis, molecular virology and epidemiology, pro­ phylaxis and control. Yet, despite these academic and practical advances in research, the age-old horror evoked by rabies is still very real, with only four documented human recoveries once symptoms are realized. After decades of intense scrutiny and four recent books describing rabies and its viral relatives, there is still much to be learned. The great authority on rabies, Karl Habel, once related an incident of a very distraught elderly woman, who showed symptoms of neurological disease. She told Habel, "I don't need a physician. I know I have rabies. My beloved dog had rabies and died. Look", she exclaimed, while flinging down a goblet of water, "I have hydrophobia". Habel asked for her confinement for psychiatric examination.