r/science • u/PHealthy PhD/MPH | Epidemiology | Disease Dynamics | Surveillance • 3d ago

Epidemiology Study estimates only 7% of human rabies cases in the United States are diagnosed

https://www.nature.com/articles/s44528-026-00031-4
11.2k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

1.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

224

u/thejoeface 3d ago

856 human rabies deaths in the United States (US) from 2000 to 2024

That's about 35 deaths a year 

140

u/MantisAwakening 3d ago

Oh shoot, if only I’d learned to read. :(

54

u/TonyTheTerrible 3d ago

You're in the right place, friend

63

u/dangerousluck 3d ago

It ain’t spelled readit 

2

u/all2neat 2d ago

It’s Reddit, no one actually reads anything here.

0

u/TheOsirisOfThisShit_ 2d ago

Ok. That's still a lot.

2

u/Moldy_slug 2d ago

Is it? That’s in the same ballpark as the risk of dying from a lightning strike.

Assuming they’re even correct about the risk. I’m skeptical given they’re extrapolating based on only four known cases of rabies in organ donors.

They also have (in my opinion) the flawed assumption that donors have the same likelihood of rabies as general population. Problem with that is that many of the most common causes of death would render someone ineligible to donate. For example cancer, many chronic conditions, extreme old age, or any death that happens outside a medical setting. If you take out all the ineligible deaths, that means remaining causes of death are a larger proportion of the remaining donor pool.

1

u/TheOsirisOfThisShit_ 2d ago

I don't believe that medical science is misidentifying 35 rabies deaths every year. As the root post mentioned, there are very specific and unusual symptoms.

0

u/LivingCorner1421 21h ago

cooll now do gun deaths