What’s hydrophobia?
No, it isn’t a fear of water, it’s another name for rabies! The rabies virus is transmitted through an animal’s saliva usually from an infected animal. Rabies can cause restlessness, confusion, and paralysis. Some very weird side effects of rabies developing is a fear of water and sunlight. The reason people develop hydrophobia is because it hurts to swallow and the muscles will have spasms. Not only that but the reason you have those is because the rabies reproduce in the part of your throat where water goes and they have control of your nervous system.
Over 55,000 people have died from rabies. Rabies will attach itself to a healthy cell and inject its cells into it. Then there is a whole rabies factory in your cells. Usually rabies are spread through bats, coyotes, foxes, skunks and racoons.
Where did rabies come from? Well, there were ancient hieroglyphs and writings from Mesopotamia that mentioned the behavior we associate with the virus. In North America, it is thought that the virus came from European explorers traveling with sled dogs and other pack animals. It was diagnosed as rabies in the 1920’s. In the 1940’s rabies spread from the arctic fox to the red fox that is very common in Northern Ontario. From there it spread to Southern Ontario. All of that farmland was a great place for foxes… and unfortunately, rabies. From there it spread on south into the U.S.
