Read an article in the NYTimes today about a man who got a kidney transplant but the donor had rabies and it transferred through the organ. Nightmare stuff.
A comedy lauded for its medical accuracy and dramatic moments, perhaps most notably when Dr Cox transplants organs from a dead patient into three of his own patients and later discovers that the donor patient died of rabies and the transplanted organs have infected his own patients which leads to their death.
This was my reaction when I finished watching Scrubs all the way through for the first time: I can't decide if the show is supposed to be a comedy that sometimes makes me feel feelings, or a drama that sometimes makes me laugh.
It is, but it's actually very realistic in a medical sense unlike Grey's. The Pitt is very accurate but would just give them trauma like The Bear does for any chefs
Rabies. It's exceptionally common, but people just don't run into the animals that carry it often. Skunks especially, and bats.
Let me paint you a picture.
You go camping, and at midday you decide to take a nap in a nice little hammock. While sleeping, a tiny brown bat, in the "rage" stages of infection is fidgeting in broad daylight, uncomfortable, and thirsty (due to the hydrophobia) and you snort, startling him. He goes into attack mode.
Except you're asleep, and he's a little brown bat, so weighs around 6 grams. You don't even feel him land on your bare knee, and he starts to bite. His teeth are tiny. Hardly enough to even break the skin, but he does manage to give you the equivalent of a tiny scrape that goes completely unnoticed.
Rabies does not travel in your blood. In fact, a blood test won't even tell you if you've got it. (Antibody tests may be done, but are useless if you've ever been vaccinated.)
You wake up, none the wiser. If you notice anything at the bite site at all, you assume you just lightly scraped it on something.
The bomb has been lit, and your nervous system is the wick. The rabies will multiply along your nervous system, doing virtually no damage, and completely undetectable. You literally have NO symptoms.
It may be four days, it may be a year, but the camping trip is most likely long forgotten. Then one day your back starts to ache... Or maybe you get a slight headache?
At this point, you're already dead. There is no cure.
(The sole caveat to this is the Milwaukee Protocol, which leaves most patients dead anyway, and the survivors mentally disabled, and is seldom done).
There's no treatment. It has a 100% kill rate.
Absorb that. Not a single other virus on the planet has a 100% kill rate. Only rabies. And once you're symptomatic, it's over. You're dead.
So what does that look like?
Your headache turns into a fever, and a general feeling of being unwell. You're fidgety. Uncomfortable. And scared. As the virus that has taken its time getting into your brain finds a vast network of nerve endings, it begins to rapidly reproduce, starting at the base of your brain... Where your "pons" is located. This is the part of the brain that controls communication between the rest of the brain and body, as well as sleep cycles.
Next you become anxious. You still think you have only a mild fever, but suddenly you find yourself becoming scared, even horrified, and it doesn't occur to you that you don't know why. This is because the rabies is chewing up your amygdala.
As your cerebellum becomes hot with the virus, you begin to lose muscle coordination, and balance. You think maybe it's a good idea to go to the doctor now, but assuming a doctor is smart enough to even run the tests necessary in the few days you have left on the planet, odds are they'll only be able to tell your loved ones what you died of later.
You're twitchy, shaking, and scared. You have the normal fear of not knowing what's going on, but with the virus really fucking the amygdala this is amplified a hundred fold. It's around this time the hydrophobia starts.
You're horribly thirsty, you just want water. But you can't drink. Every time you do, your throat clamps shut and you vomit. This has become a legitimate, active fear of water. You're thirsty, but looking at a glass of water begins to make you gag, and shy back in fear. The contradiction is hard for your hot brain to see at this point. By now, the doctors will have to put you on IVs to keep you hydrated, but even that's futile. You were dead the second you had a headache.
You begin hearing things, or not hearing at all as your thalamus goes. You taste sounds, you see smells, everything starts feeling like the most horrifying acid trip anyone has ever been on. With your hippocampus long under attack, you're having trouble remembering things, especially family.
You're alone, hallucinating, thirsty, confused, and absolutely, undeniably terrified. Everything scares the literal shit out of you at this point. These strange people in lab coats. These strange people standing around your bed crying, who keep trying to get you "drink something" and crying. And it's only been about a week since that little headache that you've completely forgotten. Time means nothing to you anymore. Funny enough, you now know how the bat felt when he bit you.
Eventually, you slip into the "dumb rabies" phase. Your brain has started the process of shutting down. Too much of it has been turned to liquid virus. Your face droops. You drool. You're all but unaware of what's around you. A sudden noise or light might startle you, but for the most part, it's all you can do to just stare at the ground. You haven't really slept for about 72 hours.
Then you die. Always, you die.
And there's not one... fucking... thing... anyone can do for you.
Then there's the question of what to do with your corpse. I mean, sure, burying it is the right thing to do. But the fucking virus can survive in a corpse for years. You could kill every rabid animal on the planet today, and if two years from now, some moist, preserved, rotten hunk of used-to-be brain gets eaten by an animal, it starts all over.
So yeah, rabies scares the shit out of me. And it's fucking EVERYWHERE. (Source: Spent a lot of time working with rabies. Would still get my vaccinations if I could afford them.)
We should raise awareness with a fun run and call it…“Michael Scott's Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run Race for the Cure”
I have a huge contingent of bats congregating outside my house every single damn day, and at night some of them swoop me. Every time that happens I think of this copypasta.
I stopped reading shortly after you go camping and fall asleep and a little bat bites you. I like doing plenty of outside stuff, but camping trips and spending hours/days in the woods isn't my thing. If some wild animal bites me I am going to know about it.
What the copypasta exaggerates, gets wrong, or presents misleadingly
“Rabies is exceptionally common.”
Not really, especially in humans.
In most countries, rabies in wildlife exists, but actual human infections are very rare due to good surveillance and vaccines. In the US, only 1–3 human cases per year occur on average—nearly all due to unrecognized bat exposures.
“You don’t feel a bat bite.”
You can fail to notice it, yes.
But this scenario is overall very unlikely: bats do not typically attack sleeping people.
“Once infected, you have no symptoms until you’re dying.”
Incubation is asymptomatic, yes.
But PEP works even after exposure as long as it’s before symptoms — and you typically have weeks, sometimes months, to receive it.
“There is no treatment.”
Not quite. Correct version:
There is no effective treatment after symptoms start.
But post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) — a series of shots — is extremely effective, essentially 100% if given promptly.
“Rabies has a 100% kill rate.”
Only true for untreated symptomatic rabies.
PEP prevents disease. Vaccination is protective. Rabies in vaccinated persons is rarely fatal.
“The virus survives in a corpse for years.”
This is false.
Rabies virus is extremely fragile outside a living host. In a body, it quickly degrades. It does not remain infectious for years in ordinary environmental conditions.
“Rabies progresses exactly like this terrifying horror story.”
Real rabies progression varies and is usually not as theatrical or psychedelic as the copypasta describes. The hydrophobia part is true, but the hallucination detail is dramatized.
one more detail that always intrigued me is why victems are hydrophobic-The virus also increases saliva, and these spasms, along with increased sensitivity to stimuli like air (aerophobia), prevent swallowing, which ironically helps spread the virus through saliva in bites.
Thanks, I also fact checked and got a similar reply: Short answer: it’s a mix of real rabies facts and a lot of exaggerated, outdated, or flat-out wrong claims. Rabies is terrifying—but this copypasta dramatizes it to the point of misinformation.
Here’s the truth, point by point.
✅ What is true
Rabies is almost always fatal after symptoms appear.
Once clinical symptoms begin, survival is extremely rare. This is why rabies is treated as a medical emergency.
Bats, raccoons, skunks, and foxes are major carriers.
Especially bats for human cases in North America and Europe.
Bites can be small and go unnoticed.
This is particularly true for bat bites.
Incubation can be long.
Usually 1–3 months, sometimes shorter, sometimes longer (rarely over a year).
Rabies travels through nerves, not blood.
It moves via the peripheral nerves toward the brain.
Hydrophobia, confusion, paralysis, hallucinations, and agitation are classic late-stage symptoms.
Post-exposure vaccination is nearly 100% effective if given before symptoms.
This is the key lifesaving fact.
❌ What the copypasta gets wrong or misleading
❌ “Rabies has a 100% kill rate”
False.
Rabies is ~100% fatal once symptoms begin — not once you are infected.
Tens of thousands of people are saved every year worldwide by post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP).
❌ “If you ever develop a headache, you are already dead”
False.
Early symptoms are nonspecific (fever, headache, fatigue), and treatment may still be possible before neurological symptoms fully develop.
Once neurologic symptoms (hydrophobia, paralysis, delirium) appear, then prognosis becomes nearly hopeless.
I got bitten by a raccoon a couple years ago and IMMEDIATELY went and got PEP in my finger (like 9 shots in my finger. It was the size of a bratwurst from how much fluid they injected). Reading this copy pasta truly scared the fuck out of me... But your #5 put me at ease. You could have made all of that up, but I'm going to take you at your word and not fact check because it feels better that way 😅 thank you Internet stranger.
Incubation is asymptomatic, yes. But PEP works even after exposure as long as it’s before symptoms — and you typically have weeks, sometimes months, to receive it.
I appreciate your corrections to the misinformation, but I think this one kind of misses the point of the copypasta. The point is that if you are bitten and are unaware that you have been bitten, or you are not knowledgeable about rabies and don't both getting medical treatment after being bitten, then that person is effectively dead. If you are unaware of the exposure then you won't get PEP and won't be aware of the virus until it's too late.
Not in Australia, New Zealand, and most Pacific Island. We Australians do have a bat virus that has a very high death rate but its only infected a few people. Deadly for horses.
Wait, weren't there a few exceptions that survived? Mostly by just a test method, but like, putting them into coma or something like that. The number was still very low and it was a miracle, but still, they managed to survive, somehow
Some people have survived, but it's extremely rare and yes, in 2004 a woman named Jeanna Giese was placed in an induced coma to help her immune system fight off the symptoms.
That is the "Milwaukee Protocol" that was mentioned. It is basically putting someone in a drug induced coma and treating them with antiviral meds. But it has a nearly zero success rate.
I dont know how many have survived it beyond Jeanna Giesse (the little girl who made the treatment famous in 2004.) but its considered REALLY dangerous and controversial by medical professionals.
True. But I suppose what else is there to lose if you are going to die anyway? If it's the only option I guess, even if the success rate is like 0,1% or whatever, it's still better than nothing. And even if you won't survive, I imagine being put to sleep instead of suffering from constant paranoia or whatever is a better way out than the "natural" course. Horrible disease indeed.
That’s a really interesting medical ethics question actually. If someone has something with a 100% fatality rate, is it unethical to try unconventional or potentially dangerous treatments (assuming the treatments don’t cause more pain or suffering)?
I'd say it's unethical not to. Infecting people with these diseases on purpose is unethical (obviously) so test subjects are few and far between. Anyone who has rabies should (in their brief remaining period of sanity) volunteer to have whatever treatment methods the doctors think might work, tested on them. I certainly would, although I'd want euthanasia if it "cures" me but leaves me with zero quality of life (eg cerebral cortex destroyed).
True but at that point in the disease progression you can’t really give or withhold consent and the doctors are obliged to do their best to save you, in consultation with your next of kin.
So your next of kin can (and IMO should) give permission for experimental treatments.
I think that would be a smart move for everyone. The quality of the small amount of life you have now is awful. Like people with terminal cancer opting for experimental research
I can't speak on the medical ethics side, but where I live, someone has to have had at least a 50% survivability rate to initiate any kind of negligence/malpractice claim surrounding the care they received in response.
The discussion around the protocol is that it's always paired with other forms of intensive care, which makes it difficult to determine if it's the protocol itself or just the intensive care and a miracle that keep someone alive.
In the case that intensive care alone would be sufficient (still incredibly rare), inducing a coma and lowering body temp and all that might cause damage without actually providing any benefit at all. The choices aren't Milwaukee or nothing.
All that being said, I wouldn't be surprised if the treatment wasn't why they survived. Some people just have miraculous genetics. There are people naturally immune to HIV, I wouldn't doubt that there are some who are innately resistant to rabies and symptom management is enough to give their bodies time
Two things came to mind when you said protocol: montauk from the scp foundation and the procedure they did for women giving birth where they drugged you up on a cocktail which you then pass out then deliver the child. You then wake up with a newborn and no pain from the delivery
Family had an interaction with a bat at night in a cabin. One doctor said it would have been very rare for one or any of us to have been bitten or scratched. Further, that the bat even carried rabies.
We did not take the chance. ALL of us got the shots. Fuck rabies.
Yeah, the absolute most frightening thing about rabies and becoming infected by it. You may not even be aware that you are infected with the virus. My rule of thumb is that you take an assessment of your injuries small and big and if you get any new ones just assume it's from a rabid animal.
There's no real cure, and you're not that lucky enough to survive it. A very very tiny number of people are immune but that's not you. Rabies is endemic to nearly every part of the world (including the US). The only place I can think of that it's not endemic to is the UK. But only because the UK basically wiped out all its vectors years ago.
You become hydroponic because rabies in its final stages wants to concentrate the virus in the saliva for a bite. Humans don't really bite (not like other manmmals do like dogs and cats as an example Le. Though you can only contract the disease from other mammals.
The story of the guy who died while rabies was in its “pre-symptomatic” phase and donated organs to 5 people who all subsequently died of it haunts me. Imagine thinking you got this miracle of an organ transplant to save your life only to die of fucking rabies!
Yep. It's a key factor in determining whether or not you'll survive, as long as you get the rabies vaccine before the symptoms appear, you should be ok
If you live in the EU, dogs need a titer test before arriving to prove they have had the vaccine. If you live in the US, there are other restrictions in place, although not as good as the EU.
What a horrible day to have eyes. Jesus fucking Christ. If I weren't afraid of rabies previously, I sure the fuck am now. Jesus fucking christ. That was an awful read.
Learned something today , 1 i thougt it was transferd by blood ,, 2 rabies can sleep for a whole year or more in the body before it breaks out , i read the cure is very painfull , you need a big ammount of anti rabi shots and you need to get them fast or youre doomed . Excuse my broken English .
One person survived! But she is in a vegetative state now. Also, most people are bitten by bats when they fly into your house (due to confusion from rabies). Never touch a bat with your bare hands. (In Canada anyway)
Sucks that he couldn’t/didn’t get the vaccine after getting bit, but I understand the possibilities of his situation. As someone from Vietnam, I know first hand most people likely don’t have the money to get the shot the moment they are bit or simply wave off the risk as “it could never happen to me” (cultural issue) or they simply aren’t aware of the risk/rabies in general.
My dad went through something similar when he was young but with the risk of tetanus. He was in his early 20s when he got scratched by a rusty nail. Thankfully, his brother-in-law/my godfather was the head of a local hospital, so he was informed of the risks of tetanus. My father got the shot right away, uncaring of how much it would cost because of that. He was absolutely terrified of the risk and because it happened the day before he was due to immigrate to America with his younger brother and his mother.
Moral of the story: better safe than sorry. A couple hundred for a vaccine is nothing against a lifetime of pain or possible death.
Need to try it properly, with a wedge of cornbread to munch or dip — and sprinkle some salt on the buttermilk. You need to think of it more as a thin, sour yogurt, and less like “milk”.
Edit: i would put the whole wedge of cornbread in the glass of buttermilk and eat it with a spoon. Good memories
Thats not why. It doesn't matter what liquid they try. "Hydrophobia" is somewhat of a misleading word because it makes people think that the person is scared of drinking water. It is much worse than that.
Once rabies gets to your brain, it slowly begins traveling down your neck and chest, attacking and shutting down nerves on the way. One of the first things it reaches is the muscles in your throat and you lose your ability to swallow. Trying to use the muscles in your throat to drink water results in blinding unbearable pain. This inability to swallow also causes foaming of the mouth.
It doesn't matter what liquid it is, trying to drink anything is unbearable.
As it continues traveling down, it attacks your heart and diaphragm and that's what ends up doing you in. Either a heart attack or you drown in your own saliva because your lungs aren't strong enough to hack it up.
There’s a really good charity for rabies if anyone wants to donate. It’s called the Michael Scott's Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run Race for the Cure.
In April 2025, a man in Binh Thuận Province, Vietnam, was bitten on the leg by a dog. Although he washed the wound with water, he did not receive a rabies vaccination or serum. Two months later, he began showing severe symptoms, including difficulty swallowing, fear of water and wind, trouble breathing, and an inability to drink. Medical staff confirmed he was in the final stage of rabies, and he later passed away at the hospital.
This tragic case highlights the ongoing danger of rabies in regions where the virus remains a threat. Classic symptoms such as hydrophobia serve as a stark warning that immediate post-exposure treatment is essential. Health officials continue to urge prompt vaccination and careful monitoring after any animal bite to prevent such fatal outcomes.
Funnily enough, rabies is the base for the zombie virus in so many movies, games, books and horror stories... Because it basically is the rabies virus. All the "fast" zombies are in the early stages, while the "dumb" and slow ones are late phase. It's not a genetic mutation, but an infection, and when you're infected.. You. Are. Gone.
It's terrifying. And unavoidable in the long term, if it breaks out into a pandemic.
That’s why if they ever find a bat in your house and people are asleep, everybody asleep in the house needs to be vaccinated ASAP because they may have been bitten and don’t even know it
Read an article in the NYTimes today about a man who got a kidney transplant but the donor had rabies and it transferred through the organ. Nightmare stuff.
Scrubs
As soon as The Fray starts playing on scrubs, you know you’re in for a tough time
I instantly thought of that episode!
Isn’t that supposed to be a comedy?
A comedy lauded for its medical accuracy and dramatic moments, perhaps most notably when Dr Cox transplants organs from a dead patient into three of his own patients and later discovers that the donor patient died of rabies and the transplanted organs have infected his own patients which leads to their death.
I put the whole series on Plex for my EMT friend - it’s his favorite show. I’m gonna have to actually sit down and watch it. Thanks!
This was my reaction when I finished watching Scrubs all the way through for the first time: I can't decide if the show is supposed to be a comedy that sometimes makes me feel feelings, or a drama that sometimes makes me laugh.
Yes
It is, but it's actually very realistic in a medical sense unlike Grey's. The Pitt is very accurate but would just give them trauma like The Bear does for any chefs
Obligatory copy pasta about rabies:
Rabies is scary.
Rabies. It's exceptionally common, but people just don't run into the animals that carry it often. Skunks especially, and bats.
Let me paint you a picture.
You go camping, and at midday you decide to take a nap in a nice little hammock. While sleeping, a tiny brown bat, in the "rage" stages of infection is fidgeting in broad daylight, uncomfortable, and thirsty (due to the hydrophobia) and you snort, startling him. He goes into attack mode.
Except you're asleep, and he's a little brown bat, so weighs around 6 grams. You don't even feel him land on your bare knee, and he starts to bite. His teeth are tiny. Hardly enough to even break the skin, but he does manage to give you the equivalent of a tiny scrape that goes completely unnoticed.
Rabies does not travel in your blood. In fact, a blood test won't even tell you if you've got it. (Antibody tests may be done, but are useless if you've ever been vaccinated.)
You wake up, none the wiser. If you notice anything at the bite site at all, you assume you just lightly scraped it on something.
The bomb has been lit, and your nervous system is the wick. The rabies will multiply along your nervous system, doing virtually no damage, and completely undetectable. You literally have NO symptoms.
It may be four days, it may be a year, but the camping trip is most likely long forgotten. Then one day your back starts to ache... Or maybe you get a slight headache?
At this point, you're already dead. There is no cure.
(The sole caveat to this is the Milwaukee Protocol, which leaves most patients dead anyway, and the survivors mentally disabled, and is seldom done).
There's no treatment. It has a 100% kill rate.
Absorb that. Not a single other virus on the planet has a 100% kill rate. Only rabies. And once you're symptomatic, it's over. You're dead.
So what does that look like?
Your headache turns into a fever, and a general feeling of being unwell. You're fidgety. Uncomfortable. And scared. As the virus that has taken its time getting into your brain finds a vast network of nerve endings, it begins to rapidly reproduce, starting at the base of your brain... Where your "pons" is located. This is the part of the brain that controls communication between the rest of the brain and body, as well as sleep cycles.
Next you become anxious. You still think you have only a mild fever, but suddenly you find yourself becoming scared, even horrified, and it doesn't occur to you that you don't know why. This is because the rabies is chewing up your amygdala.
As your cerebellum becomes hot with the virus, you begin to lose muscle coordination, and balance. You think maybe it's a good idea to go to the doctor now, but assuming a doctor is smart enough to even run the tests necessary in the few days you have left on the planet, odds are they'll only be able to tell your loved ones what you died of later.
You're twitchy, shaking, and scared. You have the normal fear of not knowing what's going on, but with the virus really fucking the amygdala this is amplified a hundred fold. It's around this time the hydrophobia starts.
You're horribly thirsty, you just want water. But you can't drink. Every time you do, your throat clamps shut and you vomit. This has become a legitimate, active fear of water. You're thirsty, but looking at a glass of water begins to make you gag, and shy back in fear. The contradiction is hard for your hot brain to see at this point. By now, the doctors will have to put you on IVs to keep you hydrated, but even that's futile. You were dead the second you had a headache.
You begin hearing things, or not hearing at all as your thalamus goes. You taste sounds, you see smells, everything starts feeling like the most horrifying acid trip anyone has ever been on. With your hippocampus long under attack, you're having trouble remembering things, especially family.
You're alone, hallucinating, thirsty, confused, and absolutely, undeniably terrified. Everything scares the literal shit out of you at this point. These strange people in lab coats. These strange people standing around your bed crying, who keep trying to get you "drink something" and crying. And it's only been about a week since that little headache that you've completely forgotten. Time means nothing to you anymore. Funny enough, you now know how the bat felt when he bit you.
Eventually, you slip into the "dumb rabies" phase. Your brain has started the process of shutting down. Too much of it has been turned to liquid virus. Your face droops. You drool. You're all but unaware of what's around you. A sudden noise or light might startle you, but for the most part, it's all you can do to just stare at the ground. You haven't really slept for about 72 hours.
Then you die. Always, you die.
And there's not one... fucking... thing... anyone can do for you.
Then there's the question of what to do with your corpse. I mean, sure, burying it is the right thing to do. But the fucking virus can survive in a corpse for years. You could kill every rabid animal on the planet today, and if two years from now, some moist, preserved, rotten hunk of used-to-be brain gets eaten by an animal, it starts all over.
So yeah, rabies scares the shit out of me. And it's fucking EVERYWHERE. (Source: Spent a lot of time working with rabies. Would still get my vaccinations if I could afford them.)
Well, shit.
I’m now terrified of rabies.
Thanks, random stranger.
Uh oh, fear is the first sign of having rabies!
We better burn them just in case!
He's infected right?
We should raise awareness with a fun run and call it…“Michael Scott's Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run Race for the Cure”
And I will never go on camping ever again sleeping
I’ve read that 47 times and still can’t figure out what it is you’ll never do again.
Same
Read it 100 times mayhap your understanding will be opened up
…you will never go camping overnight, where you might have to sleep in the woods?
Yea thanks dude, now I'm not going outside anymore.
I have a huge contingent of bats congregating outside my house every single damn day, and at night some of them swoop me. Every time that happens I think of this copypasta.
terrified of rabies, again.
Fear is the first symptom!
I wasn't going to read all of that, so I remain ignorantly unafraid.
Smart, because it's pure nightmare fuel.
I stopped reading shortly after you go camping and fall asleep and a little bat bites you. I like doing plenty of outside stuff, but camping trips and spending hours/days in the woods isn't my thing. If some wild animal bites me I am going to know about it.
Like I’m sorry that happened…or congrats I guess 😭
What the copypasta exaggerates, gets wrong, or presents misleadingly
Not really, especially in humans. In most countries, rabies in wildlife exists, but actual human infections are very rare due to good surveillance and vaccines. In the US, only 1–3 human cases per year occur on average—nearly all due to unrecognized bat exposures.
You can fail to notice it, yes. But this scenario is overall very unlikely: bats do not typically attack sleeping people.
Incubation is asymptomatic, yes. But PEP works even after exposure as long as it’s before symptoms — and you typically have weeks, sometimes months, to receive it.
Not quite. Correct version: There is no effective treatment after symptoms start. But post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) — a series of shots — is extremely effective, essentially 100% if given promptly.
Only true for untreated symptomatic rabies. PEP prevents disease. Vaccination is protective. Rabies in vaccinated persons is rarely fatal.
This is false. Rabies virus is extremely fragile outside a living host. In a body, it quickly degrades. It does not remain infectious for years in ordinary environmental conditions.
Real rabies progression varies and is usually not as theatrical or psychedelic as the copypasta describes. The hydrophobia part is true, but the hallucination detail is dramatized.
Thanks for point number 1 kind person. I was ready to never leave the house again
all 7
Forgot to add that you're more likely to get bitten by a tiny bat in your own home.
Thank you. I hate disinformation even when it's relatively harmless like this.
Disinformation totally pisses me off!
one more detail that always intrigued me is why victems are hydrophobic-The virus also increases saliva, and these spasms, along with increased sensitivity to stimuli like air (aerophobia), prevent swallowing, which ironically helps spread the virus through saliva in bites.
Thanks, I also fact checked and got a similar reply: Short answer: it’s a mix of real rabies facts and a lot of exaggerated, outdated, or flat-out wrong claims. Rabies is terrifying—but this copypasta dramatizes it to the point of misinformation.
Here’s the truth, point by point.
✅ What is true
Rabies is almost always fatal after symptoms appear. Once clinical symptoms begin, survival is extremely rare. This is why rabies is treated as a medical emergency.
Bats, raccoons, skunks, and foxes are major carriers. Especially bats for human cases in North America and Europe.
Bites can be small and go unnoticed. This is particularly true for bat bites.
Incubation can be long. Usually 1–3 months, sometimes shorter, sometimes longer (rarely over a year).
Rabies travels through nerves, not blood. It moves via the peripheral nerves toward the brain.
Hydrophobia, confusion, paralysis, hallucinations, and agitation are classic late-stage symptoms.
Post-exposure vaccination is nearly 100% effective if given before symptoms. This is the key lifesaving fact.
❌ What the copypasta gets wrong or misleading
❌ “Rabies has a 100% kill rate”
False.
Rabies is ~100% fatal once symptoms begin — not once you are infected.
Tens of thousands of people are saved every year worldwide by post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP).
❌ “If you ever develop a headache, you are already dead”
False.
Early symptoms are nonspecific (fever, headache, fatigue), and treatment may still be possible before neurological symptoms fully develop.
Once neurologic symptoms (hydrophobia, paralysis, delirium) appear, then prognosis becomes nearly hopeless.
❌ “Milwaukee Protocol always leaves survivors brain-damaged”
Outdated and misleading.
It has failed many times, yes.
But some survivors returned to near-normal life.
It’s not standard care because success is inconsistent—not because it guarantees severe disability.
❌ “Rabies can survive in corpses for years”
False.
Rabies virus:
Dies quickly when dried
Is destroyed by heat, UV, and disinfectants
Can survive days to weeks in cold, moist tissue
Not years. That part is pure fiction.
❌ “It’s exceptionally common”
Incorrect framing.
In wild animals, rabies exists everywhere.
In humans, it is very rare in developed countries:
USA: ~1–3 cases per year
France: Human rabies is almost always imported, not locally transmitted
❌ “Doctors usually won’t catch it in time”
False.
If someone reports:
A bat bite
Unknown animal bite
Scratch from a risky species → Doctors immediately start PEP without waiting for tests.
Rabies is handled as an emergency precisely because testing is unreliable early.
✅ The real danger (without the horror movie version)
Rabies is deadly because people delay treatment, not because medicine is powerless.
If you get PEP on time:
No symptoms
No rabies
You live
If you ignore a bat bite or unknown animal bite:
Then yes—months later, it can become untreatable.
✅ The correct public-health message should be:
✅ If bitten or scratched by:
Bat
Raccoon
Skunk
Fox
Unknown animal → Go to the ER immediately.
✅ If a bat is found in:
Your bedroom
A child’s room
A room where someone was sleeping → That alone is enough to justify treatment.
✅ The vaccine is safe and extremely effective.
✅ Rabies is nearly always preventable.
✅ Rabies is almost always fatal only after symptoms appear.
✅ Bottom line
This copypasta:
✅ Gets the fear factor right
❌ Grossly exaggerates:
Death rate
Corpse infectivity
Medical helplessness
Doctor incompetence
❌ Spreads fatalistic misinformation that can actually make people less likely to seek treatment in time
"Fact checked" by AI... you're cooked
I got bitten by a raccoon a couple years ago and IMMEDIATELY went and got PEP in my finger (like 9 shots in my finger. It was the size of a bratwurst from how much fluid they injected). Reading this copy pasta truly scared the fuck out of me... But your #5 put me at ease. You could have made all of that up, but I'm going to take you at your word and not fact check because it feels better that way 😅 thank you Internet stranger.
I appreciate your corrections to the misinformation, but I think this one kind of misses the point of the copypasta. The point is that if you are bitten and are unaware that you have been bitten, or you are not knowledgeable about rabies and don't both getting medical treatment after being bitten, then that person is effectively dead. If you are unaware of the exposure then you won't get PEP and won't be aware of the virus until it's too late.
Not in Australia, New Zealand, and most Pacific Island. We Australians do have a bat virus that has a very high death rate but its only infected a few people. Deadly for horses.
Ah yes the Hendra virus. We found it in the 90s and we are the only country that has it. For humans it gives fatal respiratory issues
sounds kinda familiar....
Australia has somethinh unqiue that's deadly to humans? Surely not?!
Look up Lyssa virus.
Dats the puppy. Nasty little bug.
Wait, weren't there a few exceptions that survived? Mostly by just a test method, but like, putting them into coma or something like that. The number was still very low and it was a miracle, but still, they managed to survive, somehow
Some people have survived, but it's extremely rare and yes, in 2004 a woman named Jeanna Giese was placed in an induced coma to help her immune system fight off the symptoms.
That is the "Milwaukee Protocol" that was mentioned. It is basically putting someone in a drug induced coma and treating them with antiviral meds. But it has a nearly zero success rate.
I dont know how many have survived it beyond Jeanna Giesse (the little girl who made the treatment famous in 2004.) but its considered REALLY dangerous and controversial by medical professionals.
True. But I suppose what else is there to lose if you are going to die anyway? If it's the only option I guess, even if the success rate is like 0,1% or whatever, it's still better than nothing. And even if you won't survive, I imagine being put to sleep instead of suffering from constant paranoia or whatever is a better way out than the "natural" course. Horrible disease indeed.
That’s a really interesting medical ethics question actually. If someone has something with a 100% fatality rate, is it unethical to try unconventional or potentially dangerous treatments (assuming the treatments don’t cause more pain or suffering)?
I'd say it's unethical not to. Infecting people with these diseases on purpose is unethical (obviously) so test subjects are few and far between. Anyone who has rabies should (in their brief remaining period of sanity) volunteer to have whatever treatment methods the doctors think might work, tested on them. I certainly would, although I'd want euthanasia if it "cures" me but leaves me with zero quality of life (eg cerebral cortex destroyed).
If anxiety is one of the first symptoms, you may be too fearful to volunteer for anything.
True but at that point in the disease progression you can’t really give or withhold consent and the doctors are obliged to do their best to save you, in consultation with your next of kin.
So your next of kin can (and IMO should) give permission for experimental treatments.
I think that would be a smart move for everyone. The quality of the small amount of life you have now is awful. Like people with terminal cancer opting for experimental research
I can't speak on the medical ethics side, but where I live, someone has to have had at least a 50% survivability rate to initiate any kind of negligence/malpractice claim surrounding the care they received in response.
The discussion around the protocol is that it's always paired with other forms of intensive care, which makes it difficult to determine if it's the protocol itself or just the intensive care and a miracle that keep someone alive.
In the case that intensive care alone would be sufficient (still incredibly rare), inducing a coma and lowering body temp and all that might cause damage without actually providing any benefit at all. The choices aren't Milwaukee or nothing.
All that being said, I wouldn't be surprised if the treatment wasn't why they survived. Some people just have miraculous genetics. There are people naturally immune to HIV, I wouldn't doubt that there are some who are innately resistant to rabies and symptom management is enough to give their bodies time
Well, it may be really dangerous but probably not more than rabies lol
Two things came to mind when you said protocol: montauk from the scp foundation and the procedure they did for women giving birth where they drugged you up on a cocktail which you then pass out then deliver the child. You then wake up with a newborn and no pain from the delivery
There’s been only 14 documented survivors. Jeanna Giese, is one I remember reading about.
Here is an excellent podcasts about a girl that went through the protocol and lived https://podcasts.apple.com/lk/podcast/rodney-v-death/id152249110?i=1000603489916
It’s not in Australia
Lyssa virus.
Family had an interaction with a bat at night in a cabin. One doctor said it would have been very rare for one or any of us to have been bitten or scratched. Further, that the bat even carried rabies.
We did not take the chance. ALL of us got the shots. Fuck rabies.
All I can say to this is thank fuck i live in the UK
It’s very rare but the UK does have infected bat populations.
Very rare indeed. The last case of rabies transmitted by bats was in 2002, and the last case of non-bat rabies transmitted in the UK was in 1902.
We are considered rabies free.
Yeah, the absolute most frightening thing about rabies and becoming infected by it. You may not even be aware that you are infected with the virus. My rule of thumb is that you take an assessment of your injuries small and big and if you get any new ones just assume it's from a rabid animal.
There's no real cure, and you're not that lucky enough to survive it. A very very tiny number of people are immune but that's not you. Rabies is endemic to nearly every part of the world (including the US). The only place I can think of that it's not endemic to is the UK. But only because the UK basically wiped out all its vectors years ago.
You become hydroponic because rabies in its final stages wants to concentrate the virus in the saliva for a bite. Humans don't really bite (not like other manmmals do like dogs and cats as an example Le. Though you can only contract the disease from other mammals.
The story of the guy who died while rabies was in its “pre-symptomatic” phase and donated organs to 5 people who all subsequently died of it haunts me. Imagine thinking you got this miracle of an organ transplant to save your life only to die of fucking rabies!
I couldn't finish this. But I do appreciate it. Does the rabies vaccine prevent this nightmare from happening?
Yep. It's a key factor in determining whether or not you'll survive, as long as you get the rabies vaccine before the symptoms appear, you should be ok
Why in the fuck did I just read this at 3:50 AM when I couldn’t sleep. Thanks a fuckin lot!
This horrible virus needs to be eliminated. But your incorrect on it being 100% fatal. Here is a video about why it's not 100% fatal.
Thanks! No longer going camping! 😃
I’m very glad I live in a country where rabies has been eradicated!
It’s kind of amazing that some island countries like Japan and Ireland have no rabies. How do they keep bats from bringing it?
This reads like an episode of "Seconds from disaster"
Thank you Google Pasta
Damn, I was literally just bit a week ago by a dog that was rescued from Africa and now I'm terrified.
GET VACCINATED RIGHT NOW!!! AND YES HURRY UPPPPP
If you live in the EU, dogs need a titer test before arriving to prove they have had the vaccine. If you live in the US, there are other restrictions in place, although not as good as the EU.
wait hold on what do you mean it's everywhere?
Especially in bars: I’ve never seen anyone drink water there.
What a horrible day to have eyes. Jesus fucking Christ. If I weren't afraid of rabies previously, I sure the fuck am now. Jesus fucking christ. That was an awful read.
Learned something today , 1 i thougt it was transferd by blood ,, 2 rabies can sleep for a whole year or more in the body before it breaks out , i read the cure is very painfull , you need a big ammount of anti rabi shots and you need to get them fast or youre doomed . Excuse my broken English .
No more going outside
Holy shit. You should write horror stories. Wait, you just did.
It's a copy pasta that's been around for over a decade...
Yet another reason to not go outside.
I’m pretty sure the virus is snuffed out quickly if the host has deceased. Not lasting in corpses years on end.
God I hate how much this description stinks of reddit
You smell funny
I think you might have a headache
You should get that tested.
FFS
Jesus that was terrifying just reading it
Does it not start with a headache?
What a great thought as I sit here sipping my coffee this Sunday morning.
Damn Michael Scott…
When does the mouth foaming start?
Also happy cake day!
Damn my back hurts now... and I have a slight headache
Honestly I Liked the Book you wrote. lol but yea u painted a CLEAR picture though!💯
But a bullet in me and give everyone peace.
How to acquire a sample of rabies
CAN YOU NOT PLS
DAAAAAAAAAMMMMNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
One person survived! But she is in a vegetative state now. Also, most people are bitten by bats when they fly into your house (due to confusion from rabies). Never touch a bat with your bare hands. (In Canada anyway)
Get your vaccination shots
Bit of a reach now isn’t it
Ive read this somewhere
Jezus man, that’s the scariest sh*t I’ve read in a long time. Great job!
I choosed to scroll reddit before sleeping and this is what I read. Thank you.
yeah - rabies always seemed like a diabolical infection created specifically for torture and with NO CURE
nope - i have no idea why it really exists, but it seems like one of the cruelest ways to die
Bro just shoot me at that point.
With a water gun.
In "Their Eyes Were Watching God" a woman shoots his man after he becomed violent due to rabies.
Rabies is basically a real life Zombie virus. Change my mind.
28 days later touches on the virus being a version of rabies. They just call it the "rage virus" after.
Oh that’s right! I forgot all about that!
“INFECTED WIT WUT?!”
WERE YOU A-BITTEN?!?!??
(New one was sick btw can’t wait for The Bone Temple)
Rabies genuinely terrifies me. This is either scary and sad
One of the scariest diseases on earth for sure.
Sucks that he couldn’t/didn’t get the vaccine after getting bit, but I understand the possibilities of his situation. As someone from Vietnam, I know first hand most people likely don’t have the money to get the shot the moment they are bit or simply wave off the risk as “it could never happen to me” (cultural issue) or they simply aren’t aware of the risk/rabies in general.
My dad went through something similar when he was young but with the risk of tetanus. He was in his early 20s when he got scratched by a rusty nail. Thankfully, his brother-in-law/my godfather was the head of a local hospital, so he was informed of the risks of tetanus. My father got the shot right away, uncaring of how much it would cost because of that. He was absolutely terrified of the risk and because it happened the day before he was due to immigrate to America with his younger brother and his mother.
Moral of the story: better safe than sorry. A couple hundred for a vaccine is nothing against a lifetime of pain or possible death.
It's not a lifetime of pain or possible death. It's just a couple of weeks of the worst pain imaginable followed by certain death.
So, technically, still a lifetime of pain lol.
How i react when someone tries to get me to drink buttermilk
"Its an aquired taste" suuure
Yes it's too thick for me and I like creamy shit
Hey, you do you man i was talking about milk
😂😂
Buttermilk is amaaaazing in mac & cheese
I like to fill a glass with cornbread then pour buttermilk over it and eat it with a spoon
Damnnn, I tried it last week, it was good. Is it the buttery like flavor?
First time i tried it idk what i wqs expecting. But i damn near vomited
Need to try it properly, with a wedge of cornbread to munch or dip — and sprinkle some salt on the buttermilk. You need to think of it more as a thin, sour yogurt, and less like “milk”.
Edit: i would put the whole wedge of cornbread in the glass of buttermilk and eat it with a spoon. Good memories
That doesn’t look like water I’d want to drink and I am rabies negative.
Think it was juice. Maybe they were trying him with different liquids to see if there were any he could actually drink
Thats not why. It doesn't matter what liquid they try. "Hydrophobia" is somewhat of a misleading word because it makes people think that the person is scared of drinking water. It is much worse than that.
Once rabies gets to your brain, it slowly begins traveling down your neck and chest, attacking and shutting down nerves on the way. One of the first things it reaches is the muscles in your throat and you lose your ability to swallow. Trying to use the muscles in your throat to drink water results in blinding unbearable pain. This inability to swallow also causes foaming of the mouth.
It doesn't matter what liquid it is, trying to drink anything is unbearable.
As it continues traveling down, it attacks your heart and diaphragm and that's what ends up doing you in. Either a heart attack or you drown in your own saliva because your lungs aren't strong enough to hack it up.
There’s a really good charity for rabies if anyone wants to donate. It’s called the Michael Scott's Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run Race for the Cure.
They hung up.
You only need to run 5,000 km too!
In April 2025, a man in Binh Thuận Province, Vietnam, was bitten on the leg by a dog. Although he washed the wound with water, he did not receive a rabies vaccination or serum. Two months later, he began showing severe symptoms, including difficulty swallowing, fear of water and wind, trouble breathing, and an inability to drink. Medical staff confirmed he was in the final stage of rabies, and he later passed away at the hospital.
This tragic case highlights the ongoing danger of rabies in regions where the virus remains a threat. Classic symptoms such as hydrophobia serve as a stark warning that immediate post-exposure treatment is essential. Health officials continue to urge prompt vaccination and careful monitoring after any animal bite to prevent such fatal outcomes.
This video is much older than April 2025
yea there is no way that this is april 2025
Saw this video years ago, the date is not making sense
April 2025? You mean June 2007, with no obvious injuries.. right ?
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2656546/
He's Patient 1 in the article, the video is attached to the pubmed article. It has the date June 28th 2007.
Where did you get this completely inaccurate description from 🙄🙄
If i ever get rabies i really hope i could tell them to put me out of my misery asap, i will be done for anyways
RIP. Rabies is terrifying.
i wanna see the other 999
Horrifying and sad
Nope, nobody needs to be seeing that poor guy suffer.
Whelp thanks! You just fucked my shit ALL up and I’m now deathly afraid of rabies!
Does this qualify as an infohazard?
That's sad, fucked up and very scary
Imagine when rabies mutates so it becomes highly transmissible through the air like covid or the flu, then we're fucked
People look at me weird when I say i have a genuine fear of contracting rabies.
poor guy
I’m more terrified of that brown water
That’s some fucked up lookin water
That’s water?!?
Rabies yo, that’s some bad stuff.
That’s the darkest water I’ve ever seen
I saw a clip of a little girl with rabies. Her mom is trying to help her drink water. It was nightmarish
I’ve been vaccinated for rabies and it’s by far one of the most painful and illness inducing vaccines, you feel like you’ve been hit by a train.
"try not to unfollow" this sentence gives me cancer
What causes the body to react like this specifically to water? Like what's happening in the brain to cause this?
I would like to see the other 999 videos 🤯
That certainly isn’t water
That ain't water...
The rabies vaccine works even after contracting rabies.
But before symptoms start typically
Yes. And most mammals will recognize when a pack or herd member is rabid. The group will drive out the infected individual with symptoms.
Funnily enough, rabies is the base for the zombie virus in so many movies, games, books and horror stories... Because it basically is the rabies virus. All the "fast" zombies are in the early stages, while the "dumb" and slow ones are late phase. It's not a genetic mutation, but an infection, and when you're infected.. You. Are. Gone.
It's terrifying. And unavoidable in the long term, if it breaks out into a pandemic.
That’s why if they ever find a bat in your house and people are asleep, everybody asleep in the house needs to be vaccinated ASAP because they may have been bitten and don’t even know it
I had a bat in my house. We grabbed it with a fishing net
If I ever get to that point just put me out of my misery.
Excellent podcast about the rabies. Fascinating.
Radiolab Rodney vs death
If I had to drink that color, I would react the same !!
Poor soul.
Where can I watch the rest of this series
This makes me happy I’m getting my second rabies shot today. Expensive but worth it
IV fluids don’t work?
I'd be scared to drink that too if that's supposed to be water.
Thats not water.... I'd be afraid to drink it as well
" TOP 1000 MOST HAUNTED VIDEOS
(TRY NOT TO UNFOLLOW)
522/1000 "
River water?
So is this guy gonna d1e?
Yes, poor fella's brain is melting.
If that was water, I’d be hella afraid too, and as far as I know, I don’t even have rabies.
Bro gave him coca cola He's a pepsi guy
The rabies was in that cup! No way was that water -- not clean water, anyway. 👀