The Basis for R140 – It’s Not So Fictional

Rabies and lyssa mean madness, frenzy, rage. Classic rabies is endemic to most of the Americas, Africa, and much of Asia. It is the most widespread lyssavirus in the world. Not surprising then, classic rabies is the one we know the most about. All other lyssavirus species are called ‘rabies-like,’ but they should not be assumed to be actual classic rabies. R140 is not rabies, but rabies-like.

In the West, we sedate rabid humans, strap them down, quarantine them, and try to ease the process. We do not let them run amuck, because we can afford it.

The modern West seems to have a taboo regarding talking about how rabid humans behave. Poor countries of southeast Asia, though, have no such taboo. They also have no vaccine or post-exposure treatment. Further, they lack sedation and five-point strapping down. Some have jail cells inside hospitals specifically for rabid humans. Nations even poorer don’t have that. Families are expected to tend to patients while in hospital. This is when we really get to see what happens. Free-range rabid humans live up to the ancient names of madness, frenzy, and rage.

Massive drooling is a symptom presentation of all lyssaviruses as saliva-borne viruses. Phlegm free flows from humans as much as it does from dogs. Sheets of slobber. It starts early with symptoms onset. Later, it can be so excessive that bubbles start, creating foam – they can foam at the mouth. Interesting that Stephen King chose a St. Bernard for his rabid Cujo since it would be hard to tell if that kind of slobbery dog drooled more than usual. How would you know?

The ‘Gollum-bark’ occurs in both humans and animals. Their throats spaz, producing a sound combining choking with a glottal stop[i]. It is different than a normal choking sound. This spaz grows very bad when trying to drink fluids – the virus prevents the hot viral cells from being washed away. Heard of a rabid dog that doesn’t drink water? That is why. Chris Higgins was blown away by how much a virus can control things even for a human being. Yup. And it gets worse.

Humans have the same urge to bite as animals do. But humans cannot spread or transmit any lyssaviruses to other humans. We are a dead-end or spillover species.

Remember roommate Rebecca at the library complaining about the healed cat bite on her hand twitching? This is one of the earliest symptoms of a lyssavirus. The headache, fever, aching, and generally feeling like shit? Most of the deadliest viruses begin with these flu-like symptoms, including lyssaviruses. She complained about the back of her neck hurting. This is a symptom of viruses that cause encephalitis. Ebola gives the same back of the neck ache. Quite often, humans with rabies are misdiagnosed with just encephalitis. It is a pretty generalized diagnosis. The ability to run the RNA has helped with diagnosis, but it’s expensive. The alternative is, well, rather more an end game point: brain samples. They chop off dogs’ and cats’ heads to take the samples. Diagnosis of rabies-like viruses is still not perfect. But humans going rabid is so rare in first-world countries that things may not progress as fast as they could. Albeit, that does help a fiction writer.

In first-world nations, if a rabid human ran down the street, we’d assume he was on drugs or mentally ill. Nothing really shouts Rabies! to us. We’d call the police and the rabid guy would bite the police as people did in 2012. Still, not saying rabies to us. Screeching, flailing, violent, nope, still not looking like rabies. We have plenty of mental illnesses and street drugs, or combinations of both, that cause the same type of behavior. We would never know unless someone of authority told us it was rabies, which would cause tons of people to freak out and fear squirrels will give them rabies.

Note: small rodents (squirrels, rats, mice, hamsters) are not vectors of classic rabies. They are spillovers as well. But is this true of all lyssaviruses? You’ll see it in the next book.

Through the zombie drugs nickname, society shows a willingness to use the z-word for life-imitating-art behaviors. Therefore, we would indeed use the z-word if we saw R140 infected people, equipped with later conversations on how zombies can be zombies without being dead and education on the movies, just as the characters do. Younger generations would explain things to the Boomers much as we do with cell phone apps. Most of us would not screw around with finding other names to call them or some official title given by officials. We’d go right to the z-word! Especially when face biting and cannibalism enter the picture.

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