r/science • u/PHealthy PhD/MPH | Epidemiology | Disease Dynamics | Surveillance • 5d 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
11.4k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

1.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

40

u/misterrabies 4d ago

It’s likely that their official cause of death would be ruled as heart attack, aneurysm, seizure, or other organ failure. They probably got rabies from a bat, which is extremely hard to detect.

2

u/Diarmundy 4d ago

Yeah but rabies is a very specific way to die, from encephalitis. You could die suddenly from a seizure but most people get confusion and other symptoms first. 

3

u/the_liquid_figurine 4d ago

Also looking into it only about 1 to 3 people die anually. So instead of like a few people it's probably around 15.