ABSTRACT
The pathology and the natural history of rabies have been intensively studied by investigators on several continents. The enormous mass of rabies research and the plethora of fascinating findings have certainly enhanced the understanding of the disease. The association of rabies with infection of the brain was demonstrated unequivocally by L. Pasteur. The epidemiology of rabies is characterized by the existence of different but characteristic patterns of transmission, usually by a single predominant animal host in a given region or occasionally by a succession of predominant hosts over a period of time. The histopathological features of rabies encephalitis caused by street virus are essentially similar in wild, domestic, and laboratory animals infected naturally or artificially and in man. Rabies-characteristic human cases displayed primarily changes in the brain stem and cord.
