Robert Carnegie wrote:
On 18 Feb, 14:14, (Floyd L. Davidson) wrote:
Robert Carnegie wrote:
On 17 Feb, 23:07, nmp wrote:
Floyd L. Davidson wrote:
Taking risks with rabies is like playing Russian Roulette.

Russian roulette is one bullet in six or seven chambers.
We are talking about, what, a thousand chambers here?

Ten thousand? We still don't know.

Technically, I believe the original "Russian roulette" is fictional or
hear-say - I think it's conditions in an army bar near the front in
_War and Peace_ or something - and a single chamber in the revolver
is /not/ loaded. *If you hit that one chamber, you lose. *You have to
go on living.

The official recommendation seems to be, if the bat that you handled
has flown away then let it worry about itself, but you, get the damn
vaccination. *It's a couple of bucks, I assume. *And if you don't get
it, then stay the hell away from me, till, let's say June. *Will that
be about right?

A rabies vaccination series might cost $1500-2000.

For real? Man. Okay, go bite a cop or something. I bet you get it
for free. There may be drawbacks, however.

(Google) http://archives.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/...bies.shots.ap/
from 2000, refers to getting $1500 worth of shots at the 2000 price if
bitten, and a study where 40 per cent of patients getting the shots
didn't need them, presumably having been not bitten by a rabid
animal. Often having been bitten by an animal of undetermined
condition, I suppose.

The significance of the price tag seems to be flying over
a few heads...

Pre-exposure immunization, due to the cost, is not
practical for the general population. People with a
very high potential for exposure, however, certainly
should get a vaccination. That includes, for example,
veterinarians and others who normally work with animals
that have a high incidence (bat researchers being an
example).

Otherwise, only post-exposure vaccination is likely to
be considered reasonable by most people. My position
all along has been that if there is even the slightest
possibility, vaccination is the only sensible route.

--
Floyd L. Davidson http://www.apaflo.com/floyd_davidson
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)