Why Does Rabies Cause Fear Of Water? - Science ABC

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One symptom of rabies is a fear of water. This fear is caused by the patient’s inability to swallow liquids, as the muscles controlling that action undergo spasms that are painful due to the rabies virus.

Mouth open, saliva dripping, teeth bared, muscles tensed, and eyes red, a rabid dog terrorizes a sleepy town. The children are ushered inside their homes. Its madness is driving it to bite and tear into anyone who comes near it.

The cause for this behavior is the rabies virus. This small 5-gene, 12 kbp RNA virus causes “insanity” in its victims, all to enter another host. Humans infected with the rabies virus also show a human version of the rabid dog’s behavior: aggressive, hyper, and hydrophobic.

Popular media gets much wrong about diseases, but the fear of water or hydrophobia that rabies patients suffer from is a true symptom of the disease. It is a unique and perplexing symptom. What’s behind this behavior? How can such a microscope, not-even-alive organism, change a human’s behavior?

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Why Does RABIES Cause HYDROPHOBIA (Fear of Water)?

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