BMJ  2005;331:501-503 (3 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7515.501

Clinical review

Lesson of the week

Paralytic rabies after a two week holiday in India

¹ Viral CNS Infections Group, Divisions of Neurological Science and Medical Microbiology, University of Liverpool, Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Liverpool L9 7LJ, ² Rabies and Wildlife Zoonoses Group, Veterinary Laboratories Agency (Weybridge), Weybridge, Surrey KT15 3NB, ³ Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery NHS Trust, ⁴ Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, Fairfield Hospital, Bury BL9 7TD

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Introduction

Rabies is an acute infection of the central nervous system (CNS) and caused by rabies virus or related members of the genus Lyssavirus, family Rhabdoviridae.¹ The virus is usually transmitted through a dog bite and produces one of the most important viral encephalitides worldwide, with at least 40 000 deaths reported annually.² However, it is rare in the United Kingdom, where just 12 cases have been reported since 1977³: 11 were imported from overseas, and one occurred in a bat handler infected in Scotland with European bat lyssavirus type 2a.⁴ Most UK patients presented with furious rabies, which is characterised by hydrophobia and spasms. We report a case of paralytic rabies in a tourist after a two week holiday in Goa, India.

View larger version (44K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig 2 Phylogenetic tree depicting the relation between the rabies virus sequence amplified from our patient (RV1964—boxed) and other viruses originating in Asia. The horizontal branch lengths represent . . . [Full text of this article]

 

Case report

Discussion

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