Rabies

Key points

• Rabies is a viral disease that causes an acute encephalitis. The rabies virus is classed as a RNA rhabdovirus (specifically a lyssavirus) and has a bullet-shaped capsid.
• prodrome: headache, fever, agitation
• hydrophobia: water-provoking muscle spasms
• hypersalivation
• Negri bodies: cytoplasmic inclusion bodies found in infected neurons There is now considered to be 'no risk' of developing rabies following an animal bite in the UK and the majority of developed countries.