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Humans have developed immunity to rabies.
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
Several Peruvians have survived rabies. No one has treated them. This case has led scientists to wonder about the existence of some kind of defense mechanism.
A research team led by Amy Gilbert of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, along with Peruvian health officials, traveled to two communities in a part of the Peruvian Amazon that has periodic outbreaks of rabies, a disease caused by bats.
Scientists took blood samples from 63 people. It turned out that seven had antibodies to rabies in their bodies. In one case, the person had previously received the vaccine, and in the others, they had not. They had already been bitten by mice. This means that people were able to cope with rabies and develop immunity.
However, it remains unclear whether they actually became ill or simply encountered a small concentration of the virus. It is also unknown what level of antibodies are needed to provide protection against rabies. In theory, this discovery could lead to more effective treatments.
In the meantime, doctors can only reduce the manifestation of symptoms. However, it is known that in 2005, American Gina Gies recovered after being infected with the virus (the girl was not vaccinated). She was put into an artificial coma, and then given drugs that stimulate the immune system. This case is known as the Milwaukee Protocol. A week later, Gies was brought out of the coma and successfully continued treatment as usual.
In humans, the onset of rabies symptoms is inevitably fatal. There are no proven cases of recovery from rabies symptoms: as of 2011, there were only nine known cases of people recovering from rabies that were not confirmed by laboratory tests. In June 2011, it was reported that doctors at the Children's Hospital of the University of California were able to cure 8-year-old Priscilla Reynolds of rabies. Thus, rabies is one of the most dangerous infectious diseases (along with HIV, tetanus, and some other diseases). However, rabies symptoms may not appear if the amount of virus that has entered the body is small or the person is immune to the disease.
Every year, 55,000 people die worldwide from rabies transmitted to them from animals. At the same time, in developed and some other countries, the incidence of human disease is significantly (by several orders of magnitude) lower, since timely anti-rabies assistance is organized there.
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