Pets Asked by Trent on May 8, 2021
Can the rabies virus survive outside the host animal? Like if a rabid animal drools on grass, can it still remain infectious?
First things first: Rabies is an extremely dangerous infection and regular vaccination (every 10 years) is the only sure protection! As far as I know there are about 15 - 20 people who have ever survived an acute rabies infection in the history of human medicine, none of them without severe neurological sequelae and most of them died a few months after. The first reported case of a survival was Jeanna Giese in 2004.
Now to your question:
Technically viruses are not alive in the biological sense, so medical scientists speak of viruses being active (alive, infectious) or inactive (dead, destroyed, unable to infect a cell).
Yes the rabies virus can stay active outside of a host body for a limited time, depending on environmental factors.
This german veterinary gives the following information:
In addition, the safety data sheet of MSDS Online contains the following information about the virus:
And from this scientific study (Matouch et al, Vet Med (Praha) 1987), which was summarized here, comes the longest recorded activity time of the virus outside of a host:
Answered by Elmy on May 8, 2021
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