Jeanna Giese

Jeanna Giese (born 1989) is the first person known to have survived symptomatic rabies without receiving the rabies vaccine. She is only the sixth person known to have survived rabies after the onset of symptoms; the other survivors suffered from vaccine failures.

Infection with rabies

On September 12, 2004, Giese, then fifteen years old, and a student at St. Mary Springs High School, picked up a bat that she found in St. Patrick's Church in her hometown of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. She sustained a small bite on her left index finger, and having treated it with hydrogen peroxide, her mother decided not to seek medical attention. Thirty-seven days after the bite Giese developed neurological symptoms. She was admitted to the hospital with a 102 degree Fahrenheit fever, double vision, slurred speech, and jerking in her left arm. Her condition continued to deteriorate, and she was referred to Dr. Rodney Willoughby at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. Doctors there began to suspect rabies, and their diagnosis was confirmed by laboratory tests at the Centers for Disease Control.

Induced coma treatment

Medical history has shown that most rabies deaths are caused by temporary brain dysfunction with little to no damage occurring to the brain itself. Using this information, Dr. Rodney Willoughby's team came up with an experimental treatment for rabies.cite news|url=http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=423103|title=Hoping again for a miracle|last=Johnson|first=Mark|coauthors=Kawanza Newson|date=2006-05-11|publisher=Milwaukee Journal Sentinel|accessdate=2008-07-16] Giese’s parents agreed to the experimental treatment at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. Dr. Willoughby's goal was to put Giese into an induced coma to essentially protect herself from her brain, with the hope that she would survive long enough for her immune system to produce the antibodies to fight off the virus. Giese was given a cocktail of ketamine, midazolam, and phenobarbital to suppress brain activity and the antiviral drugs (ribavirin and amantadine) while waiting for her immune system to produce antibodies to attack the virus. Giese was brought out of the coma after six days once signs of the immune system's progress became apparent.

After thirty-one days in the hospital, Giese was declared virus-free and removed from isolation. There was some initial concern about the extent of brain damage she had suffered, but while she had suffered some, the disease (and treatment) seemed to have left her cognitive abilities largely intact. She spent several weeks undergoing rehabilitation therapy and was discharged on January 1, 2005. By November 2005 she was able to walk on her own, had returned to school, and had started driving automobiles. She graduated from high school in 2007.

Life after rabies

Jeanna Giese returned to school, and with the extra help of teachers, was able to complete her sophomore year with her class. Despite the obvious setback, she kept at the same level as the rest of her classmates. She graduated high school with honors in May 2007. She expressed her intention to become a veterinarian after graduating. [WFRV evening newscast on June 3 2007] She is attending Marian University in Fond du Lac. [http://www.weau.com/home/headlines/9466552.html "Giese Overcomes Rabies, Heads to College"] , WEAU, August 30 2007, Retrieved September 4 2007] Mayo Clinic neurologist Dr. Kenneth Mack described her condition as she entered college: she's recovered "remarkably well" and should continue to improve.

Theories about survival

The reasons for her survival remain controversial. While the treatment appears to have worked as planned, her doctors suggest Giese might have been infected with a particularly weak form of the virus, or that the fact that she was bitten in a site far from the brain bought her unusually strong immune system sufficient time to fight the virus. When admitted to the hospital no live virus, only antibodies, could be isolated from her body,Fact|date=July 2008 and the bat was not recovered for testing.

Other attempts

At least six later attempts to cure symptomatic rabies using a similar medical protocol have been unsuccessful. In May 2006, doctors at the Texas Children's Hospital applied a similar treatment as used on Giese to Zachary Jones, a 16 year-old stricken with symptomatic rabies, but they were unable to save him. From early October to early November 2006, 10-year old Shannon Carroll was also unsuccessfully treated. This protocol is commonly being referred to as the "Jeanna Treatment", at the Springs. An article written by her primary care physician in the April 2007 "Scientific American" calls this the Milwaukee protocolRodney E. Willoughby, Jr., "A Cure for Rabies?" "Scientific American", V. 256, No. 4, April 2007, p. 95 ( [http://sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=1&articleID=5BCA4D82-E7F2-99DF-33323DF6FF21871F online link] )] ; he indicates that those who attempted to follow this protocol actually violated it, failing to use the combination of drugs he first described.

On April 10 2008 in Cali, Colombia, it was reported (by local newspapers) that an 11-year-old may have recovered successfully after induction of coma.El Tiempo Nación Cali, [http://www.eltiempo.com/nacion/cali/2008-04-08/ARTICULO-WEB-NOTA_INTERIOR-4081557.html Nuevos síntomas dan aliento sobre recuperación de niño caucano contagiado por rabia] , April 10 2008] This patient was infected on February 15 when several children were bitten by a cat in Santander de Quilichao, a small town near Cali.

Documentary

She is the subject of a documentary on the Discovery Channel. The one hour documentary first aired on December 4 2007. [ [http://www.fdlreporter.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071204/FON0101/712040385/1985 TV documentary features FdL rabies survivor Giese] ; December 4, 2007, The Reporter, Retrieved December 5 2007]

References

External links

*
*
*
*
*
*
*