People have known about rabies for a long time, although the virus itself
was not seen
under the electron microscope until the 1960s. Rabies in animals was reported in early
Babylonian,
Greek, and Roman records. Rabies was likely brought to the Americas when settlers first
came
from Europe, bringing rabid animals with them.
A 9-year-old boy was the first person to
have received an effective
shot for rabies. In 1885, Joseph Meister was bitten by a rabid dog.
His parents went to the famous French biologist Louis Pasteur.
They begged him to help their son.
Pasteur thought that if he injected
a weak form of virus from one rabid animal into another, the
second
animal might be able to fight off the disease. He tried this hypothesis
out on Joseph. The
boy survived and lived a long life. That was how
people starting giving shots for rabies.
After this success, other rabies vaccines were made. In the 1950s, people
who had been bitten by a
rabid animal got 23 shots along the abdomen.
Today, the shots are more effective and less painful.
They consist of a series
of 6 shots given in the arm over a 1 month period. One shot is given
around
the bite and the rest are given in the arm.
