Monday, November 29, 2004
A 15-year-old Wisconsin girl became the first known human to survive rabies without vaccination. According to this Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article, a team of eight specialists at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin intentionally placed her in a coma and "treated her with a four-drug cocktail - two anti-virals that helped salvage her brain and two anesthetics. She was never given a rabies vaccine because it is considered ineffective once clinical symptoms develop."