Red-Haired Ash Reads

“It is the most fatal virus in the world, a pathogen that kills nearly 100 percent of its hosts in most species, including humans.”

Rabid is all about the most fatal virus known to science, Rabies. This discusses the history of the disease, the cultural impact of it, and how it has been handled throughout the years. This even covers how rabies may have impacted things like Greek myths, zombie flicks, vampirism, and werewolves. 

While I knew the basics about rabies, I never understood how deadly it was and how long it has been around. This whole book was just packed with new information for me. From the beginning I was hooked on learning about rabies throughout history and how the people dealt with it and how it possibly created new mythos in their communities, i.e. vampirism. One of the big things I learned about rabies though was the symptoms and how it is transmitted by different animals. I knew bats and dogs could transmit rabies, but not the prevalence of it or how other creatures could easily spread rabies, like raccoons, but I should have known this since I was always warned as a child to be careful of rabid wild creatures, but never a stray dog who is actually the more dangerous one. 

The other fascinating thing about this book that I learned so much about was Louis Pasteur and his breakthroughs in vaccinations. I had heard of Pasteur before reading this book, but I never knew the extent of his contribution to medical history. He not only came up with a rabies vaccine, but also anthrax and cholera. I never knew the extent of his contribution and it was just fascinating how his discoveries eventually lead to him creating a rabies vaccine. I really want to read more about Pasteur now to really understand how revolutionary he was to medicine. 

Overall, this was a fascinating look at a deadly virus. I learned so much from this and think the authors did a great job at portraying the dangers of the virus and how it has affected animals, without becoming too grotesque in the graphic details of the animal deaths. Now I want to look into reading about other kinds of diseases and how they were dealt with throughout history. 

TW: graphic animal deaths; medical experiments on animals; racism; colonialism; death; 

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