B.C. rabies death revives interest and fear in age-old disease

The ancient Babylonians, Assyriansand Greekswere wary of its telltale symptoms. It claimed the life of one of Canada's governors general. The diseaseis a "scourge as old as human civilization" write BillWasikand Monica Murphy, authors ofRabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus.

So whena Parksville, B.C., man died fromrabies on July 13, there was overwhelming interest surrounding his shockingdeath, triggeringa deeper, primordial fear of the virus.

According to a 1988 paper in the Canadian Journal of Veterinary Medicine on the history of rabies in Canada by Richard Rosatte, incidents were first reportedin the colonial history of the country during the late 1700sin Quebec.

Rabies claimed Charles Lennox, governor general of Canada, who died after he was bitten by a rabid fox during a tour of Upper and Lower Canada in 1819.

WasikandMurphy describe his agonizing ordeal:unable to drink, terrified by the sound of waterand ravaged by fever. Victims at this timefaced certain death.

A major shift came when French microbiologist Louis Pasteur and his colleague Emile Roux produced the first rabies vaccine in 1885.

As the majority of cases prior to 1945 involved domestic dogs, the introduction of effective vaccination of domestic animals during the first half of the century in Canada led to a dramatic decline inhuman cases. Today, the majority of human deaths related to rabiesare attributed to areas of the world without widespread, systematic vaccination programs.

Modern-day incidents

In the U.S. and Canada, modern outbreaks of the disease have largely taken place within wildlife populations of foxes, skunks, raccoons and bats. Human deaths are uncommon.

In fact, Bonnie Henry, B.C.'s provincial health officer, has made clear this week's death is "extremely rare."

There have been only two B.C.-originated rabies deaths in the province since 1924; a third rabies death in Vancouver involved an infection originating in Alberta.

All three involved an interaction with a bat.

In 1985, 25-year-old climber and outdoorsman Scott Duncan died after being bittenby a bat thatflew into his tent while he was camping north of Edmonton. He later died in Vancouver.

In 2003, an unnamed 52-year-old Lower Mainland man, described in news reports as an avid outdoorsman, also died after encountering a bat.

And this week, health officials said 21-year-old Nick Majorcontracted the fatal disease after he ran into a bat in an "unusual" daytime encounter during an outdoor trip near Tofino.

These incidents line up with the findings of a2008 paper on bat-transmitted rabies published in the journal of Clinical Infectious Diseases,whichsaidyoung adult males are more at risk if they practice activities that increase their potential exposure to bats, adding they"may be less inclined to seek medical attention or prophylaxis should a contact, even a bite, occur," because the"cryptic" nature of bat bites can make them easy to miss.

Despite this, the paper found theincidenceof bat-transmitted rabies in humans inCanada very limited: there were only sixsuch casesfrom 1950 to 2008.

Powerful cultural legacy

And yet, the perceived threat of rabies still has a powerful cultural resonance, building upon thousands of years of human history.

As Wasik and Murphy write in Rabid,the way the virus ravagesits victims and targets our most trusted family companions immortalizedin films like Disney's Old Yeller and Stephen King's Cujocontribute to our heightened concern.

"Rabies has receded to become a sort of spectral presence, a ghost story ... [but] we nevertheless cannot wholly free ourselves from the fear," they write.

"It's gone until it isn't."