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submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by Extrasvhx9he@lemmy.today to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

This always puzzled me. Why don't humans act much more aggressive or crazed like its often depicted with animals. Afaik there's 2 types of rabies, "dumb" and "furious" so my question is more towards the 2nd type. For example, we never hear of rabies causing a human to accidentally bite another human so why is that?

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[-] intensely_human@lemm.ee 87 points 9 months ago

Humans have a highly developed prefrontal cortex that allows them to suppress their own impulses through conscious will.

Humans don’t attack people when rabid because they know it’s wrong to do.

[-] Eonandahalf@lemmy.world 40 points 9 months ago

“Some” humans have highly developed prefrontal cortex 🙃

[-] Mr_Blott@lemmy.world 25 points 9 months ago

Hey, Belgians are human too!

[-] RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works 23 points 9 months ago

There are only two things I can't stand in this world: People who are intolerant of other people's cultures, and the Dutch.

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[-] the_q@lemmy.world 76 points 9 months ago

For one rabies is super rare in humans. When symptoms begin to show in humans they either die soon after or are sedated until they die. Some do rage, but again rare disease and quick death means you don't really get to see rage happening.

[-] retro_guy@lemmy.world 39 points 9 months ago

If you ever get a bite from a animal please get a rabies jab. Stray dog get a jab, bat hell yeah get a shot, dog tied done at the grocery store get a shot.

Rabies is seriously deathly.

[-] PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 30 points 9 months ago

rabies is seriously deadly

One of the deadliest diseases of all time, possibly the deadliest disease according to some metrics. Even exhibiting symptoms is a death sentence.

[-] Kalkaline@leminal.space 20 points 9 months ago

But also more importantly completely preventable with a rabies vaccine with prompt action.

[-] nitefox@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 months ago

Sponsored by Michael Scott

[-] teawrecks@sopuli.xyz 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Myth: 3 people die every year to rabies.

Fact: 4 people die every year to rabies.

[-] Clbull@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

It has a lengthy, almost month-long inoculation period where you can be vaccinated. Should you show symptoms after that, you're fucked

[-] shalafi@lemmy.world 22 points 9 months ago

Mouse bit me on my wedding night last month. My dumbass snatched him out of a trash can instead of just dumping. I may have had a few drinks. Didn't get a whole drop of blood out of me, but he got under the skin.

Next day, I'm seriously sweating it. OK, time to do a little research. Rabies reports around here are astonishingly rare, especially given the nature of the area. 1 in my county for all of 2023 so far. Still...

Found out that not only is rabies crazy rare in rats, mice and lagomorphs, there are no known instances of transmission to a human. I had no idea!

[-] 520@kbin.social 28 points 9 months ago

Rabies aren't the only diseases wild mice can carry. Definitely get yourself checked out next time!

My neighbor was a maintenance man at an apartment complex and was bitten while emptying mouse traps. He was infected with a virus that caused some kind of lymphatic disease that developed into viral meningitis. He wound up spending months in hospitals and rehab and has permanent brain damage and disability. It was treatable if he had gone to the Dr earlier but healthcare is expensive and hard to access so he decided to wait and see if it'd pass.

[-] MudMan@kbin.social 7 points 9 months ago

Ditto for all animals. A guy from out of town was here for work one time and he tried to pet a cute stray cat he saw hanging out next door. I ended up being the designated local chaperone to take him and his dumb purple sausage finger to the hospital at 2 AM that night.

[-] Drusas@kbin.social 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Mice have been known to spread plague even in recent times, for example. Fortunately, it's treatable with antibiotics.

[-] shalafi@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

Uh, that's from their fleas, not bites. FFS, did no one else get through high school history? Or has education fallen this far off?

[-] CulturedLout@lemmy.ca 3 points 9 months ago

You can get Hantavirus from their dried urine, saliva, and feces though

[-] Drusas@kbin.social 3 points 9 months ago

That's kind of a "no duh" statement. Everybody knows fleas transmit it. The point is that it's still around.

[-] shalafi@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

For American's, isn't it more of a SW desert thing? Hantavirus and such?

LOL, and a post below here is acting like, "Sorry, can't be bothered to remember." The various plagues were kinda important in history, don't think many teachers are skipping over that bit.

[-] Drusas@kbin.social 2 points 9 months ago

I was actually thinking of Oregon. When I lived there a few years back, there were a couple of cases of people who came down with plague after handling wild mice (because of the fleas, obviously, but that should be able to go without saying).

Hantivirus, to my knowledge, can happen anywhere but is more prevalent in the American west, including southwest.

[-] Droechai@lemm.ee 1 points 9 months ago

I thought it was the beams from the eyes of sick people that spread it?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emission_theory_(vision)

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[-] DrRatso@lemmy.ml 1 points 9 months ago

What do you mean checked out? The only checking out you can get for a rat bite is wound care and a rabies shot. Sometimes antibiotics depending on the wound (not because rat, but because bite).

[-] 520@kbin.social 1 points 9 months ago

I mean that's the thing though, that rabies shot and antibiotics is a hell of a lot better than doing nothing, and if you do end up infected, improve your outlook a shit ton.

[-] GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk 7 points 9 months ago

The UK is officially free from terrestrial rabies.
Which when you look into it more, means "The UK has rabid bats". Hopefully not Seagulls or Pigeons, or we're all screwed.

[-] sizzler@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

There was a case of a rabid fox coming through the channel tunnel. Caught though.

[-] SeaJ@lemm.ee 17 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

It's unfortunate that the shot series can run you $50k in the US if you don't have insurance or your insurance is run by assholes.

One person needed the shot and was told they had 10 days initially so were not super worried. They were then told by the heath department they actually only had three days to do it. The health department referred them to a hospital. The hospital said since it happened where it did, they would need to go to a different hospital. That hospital did not have the shot. The initial hospital was reluctant to provide it because it was expensive but eventually caved and gave it to them.

I agree: get the shot. But don't expect it to necessarily be easy.

[-] otp@sh.itjust.works 4 points 9 months ago

I'm glad it's free where I live, and my googling of that question also suggests it wouldn't be hard for me to find.

[-] Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

There's only two people who survived rabies. One was frozen to 0.000001HP for a long period, and the other literally died.

[-] dan@upvote.au 1 points 9 months ago

Australia is totally rabies-free so I didn't know rabies even existed until I moved to the USA.

[-] Brkdncr@sh.itjust.works 59 points 9 months ago

Uneducated Opinion: Because our higher brain functions can surpress fight/flight better than most animals. It’s the same reason jumpscare movies generally don’t turn theaters into a real-life bloodbath.

By the time rabies has gotten far enough to override that, the nervous system is basically gone and we’re dead.

[-] MIDItheKID@lemmy.world 64 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I think this explains it right here. As another commenter said "more fear than anything else". Animals act very differently than humans when they are scared, they often get very aggressive. Anecdotally, when I was younger my loving smush of a dog got hit by a car and I ran over to her and she bit the shit out of me. She was scared for her life, and that's just how her brain was wired to react.

And just so I don't leave anybody feeling awful, she made it to the vet, needed a pin in her hip, and her tail was amputated, but she went on to live to the ripe old age of 15. My bites weren't too bad because she was a small dog. No stitches needed, but I have some tiny scars left if you look really close

But if you want to feel angry about the situation, it was a cop car that she was hit by which was flying down a residential street, and the cop yelled at me and my mother and threatened to give us a ticket for having a dog off the leash. And thus my hatred for police began at the age of 10.

[-] nieceandtows@programming.dev 32 points 9 months ago

That was a rollercoaster of emotions

[-] AI_toothbrush@lemmy.zip 9 points 9 months ago

I gotta admit it they got me in all three thirds

[-] wetnoodle@sopuli.xyz 16 points 9 months ago
[-] Shialac@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago
[-] CanadaPlus@futurology.today 8 points 9 months ago

It seems like a simple explanation, but the history of biology is pretty much the history of thinking we we're special and then finding out we were wrong, over and over again.

[-] Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Ah the "insects don't feel pain" era. Nowadays we know that bugs can recognize human faces. Nobody knows why, they just can.

[-] weeeeum@lemmy.world 47 points 9 months ago

I think it's because humans don't fight much with their mouths. We mostly fight with our arms and more rarely bite and rabies just promotes hyper aggressiveness, of which, these symptoms are exhibited in infected humans.

If restrained instead of sedated a human does get very aggressive, flailing their arms, screaming and hurling insults, even at loved ones and family members. I think given the opportunity there would be some biting, but less often than animals, because again, humans primarily use their arms for violence.

[-] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 25 points 9 months ago

Humans rarely bite as a defensive option. Animals bite when they are scared, humans tend to throw punches.

Rabies doesn't make you bite, it makes you scared, confused and uncomfortable and aggressive, so you fight.

[-] porksoda@lemmy.world 12 points 9 months ago

Humans rarely bite as a defensive option.

Tell that to fucking Kyle from Mrs. Ventura's second grade class.

[-] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago

Kyle. Humans rarely bite as a defensive option. Next time do the patriotic American thing and shoot your fellow elementary school students.

[-] Alto@kbin.social 6 points 9 months ago

Oh hey you also got bit by a kid in 2nd grade? I punched the kid that did it to me. Walk in the next day and get sent to the principals office. When I told them why I did it they tried looking for teeth marks to prove it. A solid 16 hours later.

Damn bureaucrats

[-] Hyperreality@kbin.social 14 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

See also:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preparedness_101%3A_Zombie_Apocalypse

And:

... the generation of a “Zombie virus” cannot be firmly excluded according to the currently available biological evidence ... In keeping with this conjecture, an interesting simulation of an imaginary Zombie outbreak reveals that most of the US population would turn into Zombies within one week from appearance of the first case ... the transformation of Rabies virus into a “Zombie virus” will always remain a tangible threat surrounding human future

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7975959/

[-] GammaGames@beehaw.org 12 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Humans don’t rely on instincts nearly as much as the typical animals you’d see infected with rabies. It’s pretty rare to hear of someone being injured by a human bite because we’re not made for that, other animals use teeth as a primary weapon.

The rabies virus wasn’t meant to transfer via humans, are just unfortunately affected by it because of similarities in biology

[-] GammaGames@beehaw.org 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

If anyone wants to know what the virus does to the brain, the Institute of Human Anatomy on yt has a good video on it. It takes a lot of information from Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus which was an interesting read (or listen, if you’re into that!)

[-] TacoNissan@lemmy.zip 5 points 9 months ago

My sister used to regularly bite me when she was angry. In her teens. No she's not mentally disabled. 🤷

[-] GammaGames@beehaw.org 4 points 9 months ago

Make sure she’s vaccinated!

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this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2023
133 points (98.5% liked)

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