Rabies
EVA European Virus Archive
https://www.european-virus-archive.com/virus/rabies-lyssavirus-8
Rabies is a viral disease that attacks the nervous system and is almost always fatal once symptoms begin. In the Amazon rainforest, vampire bats are an important reservoir of the rabies virus and can transmit it to humans and livestock through bites. Their blood-feeding behavior provides an opportunity for transmission: infected saliva can enter the wound while a bat feeds. Consequently, transmission during feeding does not require an unusually aggressive attack. This makes vampire bats effective carriers of the disease because biting other animals is part of their normal feeding behavior (Johnson and Montano Hirose, 2018).
Rabies can develop in two major clinical forms. Furious rabies produces symptoms such as hyperactivity, agitation, hallucinations, and difficulty swallowing. Paralytic rabies causes progressive muscle weakness and paralysis, eventually leading to coma and death. These are different manifestations of the disease rather than a simple division between an Old World strain and a vampire bat strain. Paralytic rabies accounts for approximately 20% of human cases worldwide and is more easily overlooked because it lacks some of the dramatic symptoms associated with furious rabies. It’s less conspicuous presentation can contribute to both misdiagnosis and underreporting (World Health Organization, 2024).
The difficulty of recognizing paralytic rabies was illustrated by an outbreak among three gold miners in French Guiana in 2024. All three developed rapidly progressing paralysis of both legs, followed by severe neurological deterioration and death. Two had reportedly been bitten by bats approximately two weeks before becoming ill. Their symptoms initially resembled Guillain–Barré syndrome, complicating diagnosis. Testing ultimately confirmed rabies associated with vampire bats. Although the patients lacked the characteristic clinical signs of furious rabies, their neurological examinations revealed features that made their illnesses more complicated than a straightforward distinction between the two forms (Deschamps et al., 2026).
This outbreak also illustrates the challenges of identifying rabies in remote parts of the Amazon. The miners lived in an isolated camp, and other possible explanations for their neurological symptoms had to be considered. The researchers emphasized that rabies should remain a possibility when people exposed to bats develop unusual neurological symptoms. A lack of aggression or other familiar signs does not rule out the disease (Deschamps et al., 2026).
Although human cases are relatively uncommon, vampire bats can cause deadly outbreaks in isolated communities. They also transmit rabies to cattle, causing substantial economic losses to ranchers across Latin America. Controlling rabies in domestic dogs therefore does not eliminate the threat posed by virus circulating in wild bats. Livestock vaccination is an important preventive measure, but inadequate surveillance makes it difficult to determine the full extent of cattle losses or evaluate the costs of different control strategies. Despite decades of efforts to control vampire bat–transmitted rabies, the disease remains a persistent problem for livestock production (Johnson and Montano Hirose, 2018).
Human rabies is preventable through prompt treatment following exposure. Rabies vaccines protect against vampire bat–associated rabies as well as rabies transmitted by other mammals. Following a potentially infectious bite, prevention involves thorough wound washing, vaccination, and rabies immunoglobulin or monoclonal antibodies when indicated. These measures prevent the virus from causing fatal disease; they are not a reliable cure once symptoms have appeared. Anyone potentially exposed should therefore seek medical evaluation promptly rather than waiting to feel ill (World Health Organization, 2024).
References:
Johnson N, Aréchiga-Ceballos N, Aguilar-Setien A. Vampire bat rabies: ecology, epidemiology and control. Viruses. 2014 Apr 29;6(5):1911-28. doi: 10.3390/v6051911. PMID: 24784570; PMCID: PMC4036541.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4036541/#ref-list1
Deschamps, Nathalie. Mayence, Claire. Parize, Perrine. Douine, Maylis. Montagnac, Clememtine. Houcke, Stephanie. Epelboin, Loic. Nasri, Amina. Djossou, Felix. Larrous, Florence. Worsley-Tonks, Katherine. Hamiche, Karim. Monaya, Alessandra. Rouseau, Cyril. Gavohedo, Samual. Alsibia, Khan Drak. Demar, Magalie. De Toffol, Bertrand. Bourhy, Herve. Kallel, Hatem. (March 30, 2026) Paralytic rabies outbreak mimicking guillain–Barré syndrome in French Amazonia Plos Neglected Tropical Diseases
https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0014149
Velasco-Villa, Andres. Mauldin, Matthew R. Shi, Mang. Escobar, Luis E. Galladro-Romero, Nadia F. Damon, Inger. Olson, Victoria A. Streicker, Danial G. Emerson, Ginny. (October 2017) The History of Rabies in the Western Hemisphere Antiviral Issue 146 Pages 221-232
Johnson N, Montano Hirose JA. The impact of paralytic bovine rabies transmitted by vampire bats in Latin America and the Caribbean. Rev Sci Tech. 2018 Aug;37(2):451-459. English. doi: 10.20506/rst.37.2.2814. PMID: 30747135.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30747135/