Wisconsin Girl Survives Rabies Without Vaccination

By Juliet Williams
11-24-4


WAUWATOSA, Wis.(AP) -- A unique combination of drugs has made a 15-year-old girl the first known human to survive rabies without vaccination, doctors said.

A team of physicians gambled on an experimental treatment and induced a coma in Jeanna Giese to stave off the usually fatal infection, said Dr. Rodney Willoughby, a pediatric disease infection specialist at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.

"No one had really done this before, even in animals,'' Willoughby said. "None of the drugs are fancy. If this works it can be done in a lot of countries.''

Only five people in the world before Jeanna are known to have survived rabies after the onset of symptoms, said Dr. Charles Rupprecht, chief of the rabies section at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But they had received standard treatment - a series of rabies vaccine shots - before experiencing symptoms.

Rabies, which attacks the brain and the nervous system, is considered untreatable with the appearance of symptoms, which include fever, headache, anxiety, loss of consciousness.

"Basically, we had a race and Jeanna won. Her immune system won,'' Rupprecht said at a news conference Tuesday.

Rupprecht said the CDC is reevaluating its approach to rabies in people, and scientists are studying what drug combinations might work in infected animals.

Although the United States has only a few cases of human rabies each year, someone in the world dies of rabies every 15 minutes on average, Rupprecht said.

Jeanna was infected when she was bitten by a bat while at church Sept. 12 but did not seek treatment. She began showing rabies symptoms Oct. 13 and was hospitalized two days later.

Willoughby said the treatment, which includes two anesthetics and two antiviral medications, will have to be duplicated in another patient before it can be credited as a rabies treatment. Willoughby said he would not reveal the exact drugs used until a report is published in a medical journal.

Doctors do not know whether Jeanna will have neurological or physical problems from the attack on her immune system. Doctors hope to release her from a rehabilitation ward by Christmas. Her parents said she stood up for the first time Tuesday and recognizes people when they came in the room.

John and Ann Giese, of Fond du Lac, said they did not hesitate when doctors approached them about trying the experimental treatment. They already had been told their daughter probably would die.

"Miracles can happen,'' John Giese said. "We believed it from day one. We had to convince everyone else.''

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