Girl survives rabies without vaccination, first case ever

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 24 Nov 2004 - 11:00 PDT

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A girl of 15 has survived rabies without vaccination. Jeanna Geise was given a combination of drugs which cured her rabies.

Her doctors induced a coma in order to stop the spread of the infection. They then started administering a cocktail of drugs. A spinal tap after treatment showed that her immune system was effectively fighting off the virus. She was kept in coma for a week.

Dr Rodnay Willoughty, Wisconsin's Children's Hospital, said "No one had really done this before, even in animals. None of the drugs are fancy. If this works it can be done in a lot of countries."

According to the CDC, only 5 people have ever survived a rabies infection after the symptoms appeared - and they had been vaccinated. Current procedure is to give the patient a vaccine containing antibodies (Rabies Immune Globulin), and then five more injections over a period of four weeks.

Jeanna's parents agreed to the new treatment. John Giese, her father, said "Miracles can happen. We believed it from day one. We had to convince everyone else."

Jeanna had been bitten by a rabid bat while attending a church service. Unfortunately, she did not get treatment immediately. About five weeks later she started showing symptoms of rabies - it had attacked her nervous system.

This revolutionary treatment will probably make health authorities throughout the world take another look at their guidelines for rabies treatment, say doctors.

Rabies is a fairly big killer - about 100 people a day die from it (worldwide).

Knowing that rabies, after onset of the infection, is virtually 100% fatal, doctors decided (with parent's consent) to try the experimental treatment within four hours of receiving her.

Dr. Willoughby said the cocktail consisted of two anesthetic and two antiviral drugs. He said he cannot reveal the exact ingredients until the procedure is published in a medical journal (medical protocol requires this).