CDC Says U.S. is Free of Canine Rabies? Not so!

Old Yeller in 5 seconds.


Virginia had 730 reported rabies cases last year -- the highest number since 1982. Most of the rabid animals were wild animals, but 36 cats and five dogs tested positive for the disease statewide.

That's the bad news.

The good news, according to the Center for Disease Control, is that the United States is entirely "Canine-Rabies Free."

Huh? How is that possible? See here for the rather poorly-written CDC pronouncement from September 7 of last year, and this better-than-the-news-release newspaper article from Reuters.

It seems the CDC has narrowly defined canine rabies as "transmission from a dog" to another dog. In short, a dog can still catch rabies from wildlife, and (presumably) a human can still catch rabies from a dog (however unlikely that might be).

Just three years ago, a young man living only one County away from me died from rabies presumably caught from a fox, while in September of last year, a rabid bear was shot in western Maryland.

Since we still have rabid dogs in this state, and since we still have humans occasionally dying of rabies in this state, you will pardon me if I do not celebrate the nonsense now being spouted by the Center for Disease Control on this subject.

The good news, it turns out, is mostly press-release malarkey. Yes, we have a lot fewer rabid dogs running around the country than we used to, but the number is not zero.
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