NEW YORK — An epidemic of rabies among wild animals is slowly spreading northward from the southern United States but health officials say fewer people than ever before are catching the deadly disease.
``It`s a combination of a new vaccine and public awareness about the risk of rabies,`` said Dr. Daniel B. Fishbein, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. ``That doesn`t mean, however, people should not be on the lookout.``
Rabies is a frightening disease that is untreatable after symptoms appear and is almost always fatal. There are only three cases in medical literature of people with rabies who have survived--with neurological complications--and some doctors question the validity of the reports.
The deadly rabies virus is passed to humans by infected animals, almost always through a bite that has broken the skin. There have been cases where the virus has been passed from the saliva of a rabid animal through a cut or open wound in human skin, but doctors say this is extremely rare.
Once infected, a person can carry the dormant virus within their muscle tissue from nine days to years, with no symptoms to warn them of impending danger. But eventually the virus will spread to the brain and quickly destroy the central nervous system.
Doctors still are not sure exactly how the virus works. But once it has spread, the victim suffers fatigue, headaches, depression and a slight fever. These symptoms are followed by an increased sensitivity to touch, light and noise. The victim will sweat and salivate, develop muscle spasms and eventually paralysis.
Victims also have such a loathing at the thought of drinking fluids that the disease is sometimes called hydrophobia. Finally the patient will slip into a coma and almost certainly die.
It is a horrible, painful death that has struck fear in millions around the world.
Since a new vaccine was devloped in 1980, an average of only two Americans a year have died from the disease. Before the vaccine, the U.S. death toll averaged 40 a year, according to the CDC.
But in developing countries, the disease in humans is still rampant and health officials warn tourists, especially those visiting Mexico, to be wary of stray pets and wild animals.
In the United States an epidemic of rabies in wild animals has been spreading north and west of Virginia since 1978. The CDC reports the incidence of rabies in raccoons and skunks has now tapered off slightly in Virginia but is increasing in other states as the virus spreads slowly from animal to animal.
``We`ve never had a rabies epidemic like this in the wild before so it`s very hard to predict the outcome,`` Fishbein said. ``We don`t know when it will end or where it will spread. It`s still very much a problem.``
However, most humans contract rabies from their pets, not directly from wild animals, said Dr. William Peter Allen of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases outside of Washington.
``It used to be dogs but now we are seeing more and more cats with the disease,`` he said. ``Most people don`t associate rabies with cats so they never bother getting them vaccinated.``
Allen said domesticated animals, even cows and horses, pick up the rabies virus through tussles with wild animals that have the disease. Their owners can unknowingly receive the virus through an innocent nip or scratch.
Health officials said people who are expected to vacation in U.S. parks this year in record numbers should be extra cautious about tangling with wild animals. They should have any pets along for the ride vaccinated, they said.
There is a vaccine for humans that can stop rabies in its tracks if it is administered before symptoms appear. Doctors said the vaccine is administered to people who have been bitten by a wild animal, a stray dog that acts strangely or a pet who subsequently develops the disease.