'First' no vaccine rabies survivor goes home

A teenager who is claimed to be the first person known to have survived rabies without a vaccination went home today after nearly 11 weeks in the hospital, officials in the United States said.

Jeanna Giese, 15, “was very excited to be going home,” said hospital spokeswoman Jackie Gauger in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.

Giese was infected when a bat bit her in church on September 12 but she did not immediately seek treatment. She began showing symptoms of rabies on October 13 and was in hospital two days later.

A team of physicians at the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin gambled on an experimental treatment and induced a coma as part of efforts to stave off the usually fatal infection.

In recent weeks, Giese has worked to regain her weight, strength and coordination, although Gauger said she needs more physical and occupational therapy.

Only five people besides Giese are known to have survived the rabies virus after the onset of symptoms, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

But unlike Giese, they had either been vaccinated or had received a series of rabies vaccine shots before showing symptoms.

The Disease Control Centre has said it is re-evaluating its approach to human rabies because of the results.