00:00 This podcast episode discusses how rabies works and its historical significance.

04:33 Louis Pasteur developed a vaccine for rabies in the late 19th century by introducing low levels of the virus to a living being, allowing their antibodies to fight it off.

09:12 Rabies is a virus that replicates in the brain and then moves to the salivary glands, which is the main way it is transmitted, and there are two forms of rabies - encephalatic (furious) and paralytic (dumb).

13:50 Rabies can start in either the dumb or furious stage depending on which part of the brain the virus goes to, and it is exclusive to mammals, with raccoons being the most common vector for the disease in the United States.

18:01 Rabies can be transmitted through saliva, sexual contact, sharing a cigarette or glass, and even through organ transplants, and the current method of testing for rabies in animals involves cutting off their heads and inspecting the brain.

22:46 Bats are the main carriers of rabies in the United States and are more likely to transmit the virus to humans than raccoons due to their ability to enter confined spaces and their small teeth, which can bite without waking a person up.

27:20 In the United States, a rabies vaccination push among pets has significantly lowered the transmission of rabies in the dog population, with only 0.011% of all rabies cases in 2006 being canine and no cases of human rabies death coming from an American dog that year.

32:07 Rabies is still a major problem in developing countries, with 30,000 to 70,000 people dying from the disease each year, and the lack of funds for inoculations and vaccinations in these countries is a significant barrier to eradicating rabies.

36:31 Rabies can cause an intense fear of water due to the painful spasms and throat muscle contractions that occur when trying to swallow, but there have been cases of people surviving rabies without inoculation or rapid treatment, leading to the development of the Milwaukee Protocol and the discovery of natural immunity in some Peruvian groups.

41:09 The host discusses a story about her dad's eyeball falling out while water skiing, but then mentions a listener's cringe-worthy story about getting shots up their nose.