Studies on state of health of persons with latent infection by rabies virus
Objective: To find out whether there were really persons with latent infection by rabies virus among the population. Methods: To detect the antibody to rabies virus of the volunteers who had the history of exposure to the virus, to make a follow-up survey of their state of health and of the growth and decline of the antibody of those people, and to compare the information from them with that from the persons who died of rabies. Results: Of the 222 volunteers with the history of exposure to rabies virus, 45 were the ones with latent infection by the virus. Of the 45 persons, 23 were in close contact with dogs or cats and 22 were bitten by them. The antibody of the 45 people to rabies virus descended year by year. The positive rate for detecting the rabies virus was zero (0/4) in 2006. the infective stage of most of the persons with latent infection by the virus surpassed the longest incubation period of rabies which occurred in rabiators in our city. Conclusions: what we have found through detection of the 45 infected persons is the true latent infection by rabies virus, but not the infection during the incubation period of rabies.