ABSTRACT
This chapter talks about the Rabies Virus. It says that if transmission occurs, but a clear history of an exposure to rabies virus is not known or recalled (an unnoticed bite or scratch received from a bat), it is known as cryptic rabies. This chapter says that therapeutic coma has been proposed as a potential therapy after its success in saving the life of a teenager who developed rabies after being bitten by a bat in the United States. It says that the neurotropic nature of rabies virus has led to the application of the virus to study neuronal pathways as a transneuronal tracer. The chapter further explains that the viruses causing rabies belong to a large and complex group, and the continued study of these lyssaviruses, along with the effects they have on the broad range of host species they are able to infect, will enable further understanding of the ways in which deaths can be avoided.
