Obviously, this topic deals with future possibilities only – it's universally fatal now, and if you fear being exposed to rabies, by all means, get post-exposure prophylaxis immediately.
I'm speaking of after the virus has invaded the brain. Is this a Michio Kaku Class III impossibility like perpetual motion machines, due to something related to the physics of neurons, or is it possible that the gap could be bridged?
Many things that were once considered impossible, such as going to the moon, were later performed and I'm curious about where on the scale a treatment for rabies falls.
Is it universally accepted (or proven via physics) that it will never be possible to survive rabies after symptoms have manifested? Or is it possible that humanity will make it survivable?
byu/MAClaymore inFuturology
8 Comments
I have seen some information stating that monoclonal antibodies are a potential way forward.
Well, people have survived it. Not without intervention, though. The Milwaukee Protocol has saved people who only sought help after experiencing symptoms.
[https://www.aaas.org/taxonomy/term/9/surviving-rabies-now-possible](https://www.aaas.org/taxonomy/term/9/surviving-rabies-now-possible)
People have survived it so yeah it’s not a physical law or anything. Medicine just isn’t good enough yet.
It isn’t universally fatal once symptoms present, just very close to it. About 30 people have survived
The body is a machine, and all things that affect it are mechanical. It is always, always, theoretically possible to cure *anything* so long as the body exists.
The question is whether it is too difficult to be practically possible with our current technology, or whether the person who came out of the other side would even be the same person who underwent the process. While in in theory one could, using means we do not have and would not understand, regenerate damaged brain tissue, would that brain tissue be the same person who went in?
But if technology advanced even farther and we found some means to record a person’s exact brain state, then we might be able to “set” the new brain to match it. (This might actually be impossible as it is largely dependent on where “thoughts” come from in the brain.)
But in practice, none of that is possible, and we are nowhere even close to figuring out ways to do it.
So it is not on the order of something like a perpetual motion machine. Those are impossible because they are literally, physically, impossible. But brains are definitely possible, because we all have one. And anything that is possible is possible.
What kind of timescale we are looking at to solving those problems, or if human even have the capacity to understand the systems involved, I could not tell you.
As for normal treatments that might help, I have no idea. I am just talking about the theoretical possibility of an extreme. There are probably much simpler ways of curing rabies than the above, even if we do not know what they are yet.
While rabies is nearly 100% fatal, a small number of people have survived, most notably Jeanna Giese, the first to survive without a vaccine using the experimental “Milwaukee Protocol” (induced coma, drugs) in 2004, leading to about 30+ documented survivors worldwide, many with lasting neurological issues, highlighting the extreme rarity and severe nature of the disease. So, it is possible but not probable. Future developments could make it more probable.
Like others have said, there have been survivors with intervention. As far as I’m aware, there is significant disability associated with them.
I do remember reading and article some time back of blood testing on some indigenous amazonian tribes expressing an abnormally high (25% of the population) antibody count for rabies, so there is some indication that people may be able to naturally fight the virus. It isnt conclusive.
… why would physics be needed for this? Is there a point at which victims try to break the laws of physics?