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Rabies

Content below is from #178 of the Who’d a Thunk It? Podcast

RECOMMENDATION SEGMENT

  • This week I recommend… you go back and listen to my past episodes released during October!
  • That’s right, I’m shamelessly recommending you listen to my own content.
    • Every October I try to keep things creepy and do a Who’d a Thunk It? FrightFEST!
    • In honor of AMC’s FearFest where they show classic horror movies all throughout the month of October each year.

NOW FOR THE MAIN EVENT

  • Rabies is a viral encephalitis (a virus that causes inflammation of the brain)
    • Symptoms:
      • Fever
      • pain
      • hyperactivity
      • excitability
      • excessive salivation
      • confusion
      • hydrophobia (fear of water)
        • Rabies has sometimes been called hydrophobia due to this rare symptom
    • One of the most notable aspects of Rabies is that it can only be diagnosed by its symptoms… but by the time the symptoms appear… it is already too late.
      • If rabies is not treated before symptoms appear, it is 100% fatal*
        • * – Some VERY new treatments has lead to VERY few patients recovering from rabies after symptoms appeared, but very little is known about this treatment. I heard about it on NPR’s radio lab podcast. I’ll talk about this later on.
  • Rabies has the highest mortality rate than any other disease on earth. It is 99.999% fatal.
    • Rabies is most commonly spread via a bite from an infected mammal (dogs, raccoons, cats, foxes, etc.)
    • We don’t know when or where the disease originated
      • But There was a 2012 Phylogenic analysis published in the Journal of General Biology that suggests the current canine genotype of the illness may have been predated by another genotype.
      • But the human connection and by far the most common way the illness is spread is by being bitten by a dog… as dogs have been man’s best friend longer than any other domesticated animal.
    • Somewhere between 33 and 40 thousand years ago we humans started our relationship with dogs, but dogs came into contact with the rabies virus long before that.
  • Not only is rabies the most deadly and horrifying diseases, it is also one of the oldest.
    • Rabies is one of the oldest diseases ever recorded. a 2017 article in the Journal of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases cited 4,000 concepts related to rabies in animals and humans.
    • The oldest being a cuneiform clay tablet found within the archeological record titled the Laws of Ishununa. It was from Sumerian and later Acadian city-state in present-day Iraq. The tablet is over 4,000 years old and says
      • “If a dog becomes rabid it makes that authority known to its owner. But he does not watch over his dog so that it bites a man and causes his death, the owner of the dog shall pay 40 shekels of silver”
      • It should be known, 40 shekels of silver is A LOT of money. During that time, an entire boat costed just 2 shekels…
    • There are also Dog incantations from this same time period that suggest these ancient people figured out the disease was in the dog’s saliva and if bitten, the person was certain to die.
  • The word Rabies is from the latin word for Madness which found its origin in a sanskrit word for “to rage.”
  • Ancient Scholars from all over talk about this horrifying disease
    • Aristotle, Hippocrates, Pliny, Ovid, and Cicero, and Chinese texts dating back to the 3rd century AD reference rabies
      • The 2nd-century Greek philosopher Celsus suggested cauterizing the wound when bitten. It is unclear how effective burning the spot of a dog bite was against rabies… but this remained the go-to treatment for rabies bites up until the 19th century.
      • Odd because the other treatment Celsus suggested was holding the victim underwater… for those subjected to this treatment… those that didn’t drown stilled died of rabies…. ‘
      • The only other treatment people used was prayer
Pliny the Elder
  • In medieval Europe, a common treatment was to place the hair of the dog that delivered the bite (sometimes after being charred) into the wound. This was a medical suggestion from Roman Naturalist Pliny the Elder.
    • This treatment is the etymology of the term “the hair of the dog that bit you.”… you know, the term that refers to an alcoholic chaser that is supposed to cure your hangover… FYI… I never found the hair of the dog to cure my hangover, but I’m sure it is more effective than the original Hair of the Dog treatment… that did Diddly Squat to cure rabies.
  • While there are LOTS of historical records of rabies cases and unsuccessful treatments throughout history, not too many of them are all that interesting. The most interesting this is just how often this disease is mentioned by so many different cultures separated by both space and time.
    • Rabies is one of the scariest diseases out there and it has been scaring the crap out of us humans for as long as history has been recorded (and likely much longer than that).
  • A notable historical case is that In 1996, a group of doctors at a medical conference were presented a set of symptoms for a patient referred to as EP (a writer from Richmond VA) They were asked to diagnose the patient. They concluded the patient died of rabies… EP was Edgar Allen Poe.
    • Poe died in 1849 so the diagnosis obviously can’t be confirmed, but is now the widley accepted cause of the famous writer’s death.
  • Today, one of the greatest weapons we humans have against rabies is vaccines.
    • In 1881 Louis Pasteur developed a successful vaccination protecting cattle from anthrax.
      • He started to develop a vaccine for dogs to protect them against rabies.
      • He first greew the virus in rabbits then weakened it by drying the nerve tissue.
      • It took decades until comprehensive vaccination protocol programs were developed.
    • Those shots you are legally obligated to give your pets (the ones I always gripe about when we take our dog Rorschach or cat Beerus to the vet for) drastically lowered the number of rabies cases.
  • In 1885 Pasteur used the vaccine on 9-year-old Joseph Meister who was mauled by a rabid dog.
    • For doing this, Pasteur could have not only ruined his career as a vaccine scientist, but could have been sent to prison as he was not a licensed physician and therefore not legally permitted to deliver vaccination to a human.
    • But considering the alternative for little Joey Meister (horrificly painful suffering and death), Pasteur went ahead with treatment.
    • Pasteur and his colleagues gave 13 inoculations in 11 days. Little Joey Meister made a complete recovery. It was a breakthrough. Quickly word spread about Joseph Meister surviving rabies (pre-symptom rabies) and patients flocked to Pasteur for treatment.
    • By the time Louis Pasteur died 9 years later, over 20,000 people had received his vaccine (post-exposure prophylactic vaccine).
    • It is important to know that the vaccine for rabies is only effective if given BEFORE symptoms appear.
    • In Pasteur’s time, it required up to 20 shots (and it is a big painful needle), but today only takes about 4 shots.
      • Secondly, if administered within 10 days of exposure, it is nearly 100% effective.
  • Today the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates 59,000 people die of Rabies each year mostly in Asia and Africa.
    • While we humans can get it from many different kinds of mammals, dogs are responsible for 99% of transmission to humans due to our lives being so intertwined with dogs.
  • Before Pasteur’s vaccine treatments that came along as early as 1885, if someone was bitten by a rabid animal, they were as good as dead.
    • Their only hope was that the animal that bit them was just acting funny in general and wasn’t actually rabid…
    • Then when the vaccines came along, there was hope. Get the treatment before the symptoms and there was a decent chance of survival…
    • But even after Pasteur’s vaccines, if someone exibited symptoms (which was common as most people didn’t equate a bite with rabies…) they were doomed. Like 100% chance of one of the most horrific things to plague mankind for as long as writing has existed. The Babylonians and Acadians wrote about this stuff thousands of years ago and genetic testing suggests it existed before canines.
  • Well in 2004 that changed… just a little bit. And I first heard of this story on NPR’s Radio Lab podcast title Rodney Versus Death (link in CREDIT section)
    • In 2004 a girl from Milwaukee went to the hospital with flu like symptoms. Pretty quickly her symptoms were obviously not from the flu as she started to become really stiff and lots of pain.
    • When the mother of the girl told the Doc that she had been bitten by an odd-acting bat in church a few weeks back, the pediatrician went pale and said “I will be right back,” and left the room… He was confirming the information with colleagues before informing the family that their daughter was practically doomed with the most fatal disease known to man.
    • After the family was fully informed they were freaked out, but ultimately were like “Ok, so lets try any experimental treatment out there. If she is doomed to horrible pain and death… we will try anything because anything is better than that.”
    • The pediatrician found that the rabies virus works differently than most viruses. Where most viruses enter the body, multiply at the site of entry, enter the bloodstream, and spread all over the body until they find the tissue they are most suited to multiply in…
    • Rabies doesn’t do that. It enteres at the entry point (in Milwaukee girl’s case, the left index finger), then proceeds to latch onto the closest nerve. The rabies virus then slowly crawls along the nervous system at a rate of about 2 centimeters per hour.
      • So for the rabies virus to travel up the length of your finger might take a day. Up your entire arm, maybe a few weeks… it is slow… but once it reaches the brain you are screwed. it inflames the brain and starts wreaking havoc.
    • Well Milwaukee girl’s doctor started looking at the past 20 years of Rabies cases and also learned that once the victims are disected (autopsy) the victim’s brain is found intact. Not destroyed.
      • He thinks, huh, Rabies virus must not destroy the brain, it just hijacks it and kills the victim via the symptoms before the imune system can destroy the rabies virus. So he thinks: “what if I can buy the immune system enough time to get rid of the rabies virus before the patient dies?”
      • Sure enough, he enduces the Milwaukee girl into a monitored coma. For weeks she is like this, given IV and monitored closely.
    • When they wake her up, her pupils respond to light and eventually she wakes up… very slowly.
      • Milwaukee girl had lost months of memory and had to teach herself how to walk, and talk again, but she did it and is now considered 100% recoverd… the first case EVER recorded of a rabies victim who showed symptoms and survived!
https://www.ocala.com/story/lifestyle/health-fitness/2011/06/12/worlds-first-rabies-survivor-graduates-from-college/31442226007/
  • Now, that have been other studies, like this one Peruvian doctor who went deep into the heart of the Amazonian rainforest to test people who regulary come into contact with Vampire Bats. The hope to was gain insight into rabies victims that aren’t normally studied.
    • What he found was that about 7% of the population had Rabies antibodies in their system. The only way this could have happened is if some of these people had Rabies infection at some point…
    • This Peruvian doctor disputes the case of the Milawakee girl (now known as the Milawukee protocol). Peruvian doctor says the Milwaukee girl survived, not because of the Milwaukee protocol (induced coma), but because she had antibodies naturally… just how he suspects a small percentage of the population already has.
  • In the end, the Milwaukee protocol has been used on about 30 people (at the time the Radio Lab pod was released in 2013… so theres been a whole decade of research since then…).
    • Out of those 30, 5 people survived… and all 5 had the naturally occuring antibodies.
    • Whether it is the Milwaukee protocol or the antibodies saving these people… one thing is for sure, before 2004, there were ZERO cases of people surviving symptomatic rabies. and Now that number is NOT zero.
  • So why did I do an episode on this? Well… Rabies scares the shit out of me. It is October so Halloween is coming up and I usually do spooky themed episodes in October. I call it my Who’d a Thunk It? FRIGHT FEST!
    • And I think it would be beneficial for everyone to be afraid and aware of Rabies and the potential horrors it presents.
      • IF a person is aware of rabies and how important it is to seek medical help quickly, that means fewer people die in this horrible way that has plagued our species for as long as history was written.
    • And I am NOT the only person who is scared of rabies. Literary scholars have long suspected Rabies as the direct influence for some of the most horrifying monsters… think about it.
      • Vampires – get bit by a bat, turn into a violent monster obsessed with biting others… thats rabies
      • Werewolves – get bit by a dog (or wolf) and turn into a violent monster obsessed with feasting/biting others… thats rabies
      • Zombies – get bit by a violent monster of a human and turn into a violent monster human obsessed with biting others… Thats rabies.
  • And lastly… I DO NOT CONDONE THIS OR SUGGEST ANYONE LOOK THESE UP AS THEY ARE HORRIFYING AND REAL. DO NOT WATCH THESE
  • But there are tons of rabies victim videos available on YouTube. they are disturbing… even for me and I like watching messed up horror stuff.
    • The only benefit I got out of watching a few seconds of one of these hydrophobia rabies videos to research this episode… It instilled a very real and deep fear in me. Which may save me one day if I get bit by a raccoon that is rabid. Instead of brushing it off until symptoms arrive… I’ll certainly be gong to the hospital and asking for Rabies testing/treatment now.

CREDIT

13:19
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Gypsy

The content below is from Episode #147 The Who’d a Thunk It? Podcast

RECOMMENDATION SEGMENT

  • This week I recommend something a bit out of the ordinary.
    • Instead of recommending a book, show, or movie title, I recommend you get yourself a white noise maker. They are pretty cheap, you can even download an app on your smartpone if you prefer to do it that way.
    • If you have kids, pets, or any other living thing in your home that could possibly make noise or be woken up by noise that you make…. you will benefit from some white noise to smooth that all out.
    • I’m a light sleeper and our noise maker stays on all night long. Tis a game changer.

NOW FOR THE MAIN EVENT

  • What is a gypsy?
    • Well, they were called “Gypsies” because Europeans mistakenly believed they came from Egypt. But Gypsies are actually an ethnic group called Roma (Romani or Romany), NOT to be confused with Romanians or the ancient Romans.
      • Throughout this episode, I will be referring to them as Gypsies AND Roma/Romani because some tribes prefer to be referred to as Roma and other Gypsies.
    • Geneticists have shown that the Roma descended from a single group of people from the Punjab region of NorthWestern India around 1,500 years ago. Around the 8th and 10th Centuries, large numbers of the Romanies entered Europe. By the 19th Century (the 1800s), they had made their way to the Americas.
    • Today you can find Romanies (Gypsies) in just about every continent on the planet (minus antarctica because its too cold for people). They speak their own language conveniently referred to as Romani. Just how there are many different nations and tribes of Romani people, there are many different variations of Romani language, but they all originated from the ancient Sanskrit language and sound a lot like India’s Hindi language.
    • Gypsies don’t have a 1 overall religion either. The majority are Christians or Muslims, but like their language, there are lots of different religions amongst their people. They are nomadic people and tend to adopt the religion that is most popular for the region they currently find themselves.
  • I mentioned the word Gypsy comes from Europeans mistakenly thinking the Roma came from Egypt.
    • This term started around the 16th century and since has taken on a negative connotation. The word Gypsy is often used to describe someone as a cheat or thief rather than their ethnic background. To “gyp” someone out of a deal comes from Gypsy.
  • When the Romani people first came to Europe it was likely hard on them.
    • Historians think they would have been shunned and looked down upon because their nomadic way of life was so different from that of a European farmer always staying in the same place.
    • Gypsy customs and language would have been completely different from the Europeans. They believe the Roma had their own religion until, over time, that religion faded away.
  • From Crosswalk.com (Delores Smyth August 2019)
    • Europeans have long portrayed the Roma/Gypsies as cunning outsiders who steal from local residents before moving on to the next town.
    • Because of this distrust, European nations over the centuries have enslaved, expelled, imprisoned, and executed Romani people. Other European nations used their legal system to oppress the Roma, passing laws prohibiting Romanies from buying land or securing stable professions.
    • Some believe that these legal restrictions placed on the Roma necessitated the continuation of their itinerant lifestyle, forcing Romanies to live on the perimeters of settled society for centuries. These nomadic Roma (gypsies) traveled in horse-drawn, brightly-colored wagons and sought jobs conducive to a transient lifestyle. Such jobs included working as livestock traders, animal trainers and exhibitors, entertainers, fortune tellers, and metalsmiths.
  • Gypsies were victims of the Holocaust
    • according to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum:
      • Most of the Roma View This Term in the Glossary in Germany and the countries occupied by Germany during World War II belonged to the Sinti and Roma family groupings. Both groups spoke dialects of a common language called Romani, based on Sanskrit (the classical language of India). The term “Roma” has come to include both the Sinti and Roma groupings, though some Roma prefer being known as “Gypsies.” Some Roma are Christian and some are Muslim, having converted during the course of their migrations through Persia, Asia Minor, and the Balkans.
        • For centuries, Roma View This Term in the Glossary were scorned and persecuted across Europe. Zigeuner, the German word for Gypsy, derives from a Greek root meaning untouchable.
        • Many Roma View This Term in the Glossary traditionally worked as craftsmen and were blacksmiths, cobblers, tinsmiths, horse dealers, and toolmakers. Others were performers such as musicians, circus animal trainers, and dancers. By the 1920s, there were also a number of Romani shopkeepers. Some Roma, such as those employed in the German postal service, were civil servants. The number of truly nomadic Roma was on the decline in many places by the early 1900s, although many so-called sedentary Roma often moved seasonally, depending on their occupations.
        • In 1939, about 1 to 1.5 million Roma View This Term in the Glossary lived in Europe. About half of all European Roma lived in eastern Europe, especially in the Soviet Union and Romania. Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria also had large Romani communities. In prewar Germany there were at most 35,000 Roma, most of whom held German citizenship. In Austria, there were approximately 11,000 Roma. Relatively few Roma lived in western Europe.
    • Until recently, the Romani were the unseen victims in the Nazi persecutions. The Nazi regime pursued and captured the Romani, putting tens of thousands to death by claiming that they were ethnically inferior.
      • Even today, the Romani are persecuted. Lately, many human rights organizations have begun to protest the treatment received by the Romani, whether it is forced expulsion or the denial of social services.
  • A lot of Gypsy/Roma history comes from oral tradition
    • Because they were often shunned from town and always on the move, the Roma rarely attended school and so their population is widely illiterate. Their history is almost entirely passed down through the spoken word.
  • They don’t take well to governments or any outsider telling them what to do. ( I mean, most people don’t, but the gypsies have their own system to govern themselves).
    • Being shunned and disconnected from the rest of the world in some way, the Romani people focus on themselves. They put an emphasis on the family and self-governance.
    • Those of the Gypsy nations/tribes that still remain nomadic, travel in bands of 10 to several hundred extended families. They move about in those caravans of wagons. Each band picks a male leader that keeps everyone in line and a female leader that governs the women and children.
    • Bands throw weddings, christenings, funerals, and other rites of passage. When one of these parties are thrown it is expected that EVERYONE attend. Not attending one of these community bonding parties can result in alienation.
  • Gypsy weddings can be a bit old school.
    • Firstly, they expect all women to only wear dresses once they hit puberty. Some groups still do arranged marriages, expect grooms to pay bride prices, and teen weddings are common place.
  • What if someone gets out of line?
    • The whole self-governance thing applies to punishment as well. If a member of the band commits what his/her fellow band members consider misconduct, they are usually subject to go before the community leaders (elders usually). They can lose their reputation or be kicked out of the band all together.
  • How’s life for a gypsy now? (European Gypsies)
    • Well most gypsies live in Europe. Around 10 to 12 million gypsies live in Europe today with the majority in impoverished eastern European countries. Some of them are still nomadic living in caravans and RVs.
    • The majority of gypsies have settled down though, but this hasn’t helped their socioeconomic standing. A whopping 80% of Romanies are below the poverty line as of 2016.
    • Many European nations have official policies regarding immigration, housing, education, and employment that are directed specifically towards Romani people and they aren’t policies that benefit the Roma community.
      • In recent years, there have been alarming reports of anti-Roma discrimination in Europe, including the systematic demolishing of Roma camps and deportation of thousands of Roma at a time in France, and the horrific forced sterilization of Romani women in countries such as the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
      • In addition, in March of 2019, Amnesty International filed a complaint before the European Committee of Social Rights against the Italian government, alleging international violations against Romanies in Italy, including “widespread forced evictions…use of segregated camps featuring substandard housing and lack of equal access to social housing.” 
      • The plight of the Romanies is also a major concern of the children’s rights organization UNICEF, which is currently working to increase literacy among Romani children in Europe through home-visitation programs that connect new parents with child education and social services.
    • In recent decades European nations have elected leaders with strict policies against gypsies.
      • In Eforie, Romania, after a 6 day notice, authorities forcibly removed 100 people from their homes that they had been living in for 30 years. They demolished their homes so they couldn’t return and left the families in a wasteland to fend for themselves. Amnesty International deemed this a violation of human rights.
  • The American Gypsy
    • Estimates say about 1 million Roma live in the US of A. Like a lot of us, the Gypsies first came to the Americas from all sorts of countries with different cultures and languages.
    • The U.S. has played a role in discrimination against Romanies in the past, as some states have on their books repealed laws that limited where Romanies could rent property, where they could entertain, and what goods they could sell.
      • Although those laws are in the past, the US hasn’t had the best recent track record with immigration.
    • Plus, there isn’t much knowledge on Roma history in the US.
      • America didn’t study Roma people, didn’t ask about Roma heritage on censuses, and didn’t really care. It is also thought that Gypsy culture was kept a secret in the US to avoid being discriminated against.
      • Most Americans don’t even know about Gypsies being a real culture and people. If you ask the average American about a gypsy there is a decent chance they will tell you it is a Halloween costume or a mythical creature.
    • In an effort to remedy the lack of statistics on American Romanies, Harvard University has recently launched a study to assess the structural, social, and economic status of American Romani communities.
  • The Romani are known as nomadic and free spirited people, but they are known as nomadic because they have no country of their own. They have been kicked out of every area they settle upon.
    • The statelessness of the Romani was not fixed by the 1977 creation of the International Romani Union. In 2000, the Romani were officially declared a non-territorial nation.
      • This statelessness makes the Romani legally invisible. Without access to health-care services, they often lack verifiable citizenship or birth certificates. That leads to many of the same issues faced by “legally invisible” people across the world.
      • They cannot access education, health care, and other social services. They can’t even get passports, which makes traveling difficult or impossible.
    • The Romani were an enslaved people in Europe, most notably in Romani, from the 14th to the 19th centuries. They were bartered and sold and considered to be less than human.
      • In the 1700s, Maria Theresa, sovereign of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, made the Romani people, dress, and occupations illegal. This was done to force the Romani to integrate into society.
  • They are an artistic people
    • From early on, the Romani have been connected solidly with singing, dancing, and acting. They have carried that tradition throughout the centuries to leave behind a legacy of massive proportions. Many Romani have assimilated into the world, leaving legacies of their talents and culture.
    • The list of famed musicians with Romani backgrounds includes Kesha, Neon Hitch, Cher Lloyd, Jerry Mason, and Django Reinhardt. Famed LGBT author Mikey Walsh and Pilgrim’s Progress author John Bunyan are two of the many Romani who have given us memorable books.
    • In addition, many famous dancers come from Romani backgrounds. These artists include Carmen Amaya, who is widely hailed as the greatest flamenco dancer of all time.
  • The Romani are sometimes seen as magical and having their own religion.
    • But they are no more magical than the rest of us.
    • They are people just trying to live their lives like you and I.

CREDIT