US GI in Afghanistan died from *rabies*?!? WTF!

[nosmokes]

We're spending $1.1billion a day(and another !.1 billion a day in Iraq) and we can't take care of a soldier that contracted rabies? This is seriously fucked up.

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2011/09/fort_drum_soldier_dies_after_c.html

I know the info at link is skimpy but it's the only story I could find. i found out about it initially because the GI and his cause of death was listed in the comp USAToday at the hotel I'm staying. Seems almost incredible.

[Mimosa]

1. His mother's only child, apparently.

Sad. Nobody HAS to die from rabies. His case must have gone undiagnosed and untreated.

[Rex]

2. Agree. Sounds like criminal negligence.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

3. It's quite possible he was bitten and didn't report it.

My understanding is, once you show symptoms of rabies, you are in BIG trouble. IIRC, the mortality rate is high once symptoms present. Hence the reason for prophylactic vaccinations post bite by an untested/vaccinated animal.

[fishbulb703]

4. Uhhh, you know rabies has no cure, and death is almost certain, right?

[ingac70]

11. Doesn't have to be. There is a human vaccine.

http://www.immunizationinfo.org/vaccines/rabies

[NutmegYankee]

15. Only if given promptly. Hence the rush to vacinate for dog bites.

If the symptoms develop it's too late.

[ingac70]

16. They could vaccinate before exposure....

my husband got vaccinated for rabies before going to Indonesia. As much crap as they inject into soldiers, I'm shocked this isn't one of them, especially going to Afghanistan.

[Jamastiene]

5. Here is an Army Times link to go along with that link.

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2011/09/ap-fort-drum-soldier-dies-of-rabies-090411/

And some more here:
http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news;_ylt=A0oG7mBWoWtO7QoAal9XNyoA?p=fort+drum+soldier+rabies&fr2=piv-web">News Stories

Yes... :wtf: Rabies is treatable in humans.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

6. It's only treatable if vaccinated prior to symptoms.

Prognosis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies#Signs_and_symptoms
In unvaccinated humans, rabies is usually fatal after neurological symptoms have developed, but prompt post-exposure vaccination may prevent the virus from progressing. Rabies kills around 55,000 people a year, mostly in Asia and Africa.<36> There are only six known cases of a person surviving symptomatic rabies, and only one known case of survival in which the patient received no rabies-specific treatment either before or after illness onset.<8><37><38>

Survival data using the Milwaukee protocol are available from the rabies registry.<39>

Once the patient becomes symptomatic, treatment is almost never effective and mortality is over 99%. Rabies may also inflame the spinal cord, producing transverse myelitis.<53><54>

[Brickbat]

8. Preventable, but extremely difficult to treat, especially if he didn't know he had been bitten.

[Brickbat]

7. If he didn't know he had been bitten, he was out of luck.

[MineralMan]

9. Very, very few people who develop symptoms of rabies survive.

The successful treatment is given before symptoms develop, and is a vaccine therapy. Once symptoms develop, only heroic measures work, and only save a few victims, most of whom are very young. Anyone who survives rabies once symptoms occur is a news story, since it is so rare.

Unless this soldier reported an animal bite and received the standard rabies prevention shots would he be likely to survive. I suspect he simply did not report, or did not know about, his exposure.

[Warpy]

10. Either he blew off the animal bite or the army blew him off

when he went in for treatment. Let's hope it's not the latter, rabies is a hellish way to die, even sedated and on a vent.

I know of only 3 cases that were successfully treated and all were kids.

Veterinarians get rabies immunization as a matter of course. Perhaps it's time to do the same for the military deployed overseas in hellholes.

[ingac70]

12. I know of a lady that got rabies.....

from cleaning bat crap out of her fire place.

[BOG PERSON]

13. n/m

[NutmegYankee]

14. Rabies cannot be cured once the symptoms start.

The soldier likely either did not report or didn't know that he had been bitten. There was a case in the past of a girl developing it from a bat bite while she slept and heroic measures saving her life, but it's normally a sure death. Money wouldn't have mattered.

[Nailzberg]

17. This wasn't in Afghanistan, says this was Fort Drum.

[ingac70]

18. He had been to Afghanistan.

rabies can take months to show symptoms.