thanks for the post.
read the article and it’s ‘evidence’ is another very flimsy retrospective study, imho. very skimpy on data. they say there’s no clinical trials supporting the ‘efficacy’ of the Milwaukee protocol, but how could there be since rabies is so rare, but we’re only talking about 30 or so patients over their period of study which was 9 years 2005-2014. they make this hard conclusion against the results 2 survivors in 29, which is 1 in 15 (or 1 in 10 if they put back the other survivors they discount) for the claim of a 100% fatal disease, that is not bad. (they also discount survivors who get past the initial disease but die later from something else for no reason at all, imho.)
so all of this (low survival even with the protocol) not surprising given that the age of the survivor in the story is 15. so very young. i would suspect the older patients would have less chance of survival just on general principal. we also don’t have enough experience with this treatment. only 30 patients and they say get rid of it. ridiculous.
so they only had only 29 total patients over Europe and N. American patients which they claim were treated with major components of the Milwaukee protocol, even with that, they admitted 2 out of 29 survived in there study, but then they went on and questioned the diagnosis of rabies based on testing for antibodies. are you kidding me? i smell Big Med agenda in this ‘study.’
To contrast, i’ll post Willoughby’s paper which they referenced, give them credit. it has much more the ring of truth than theirs above, imho. 76 days in the hospital. no picnic even for a 15 year old. not surprised that survival would be problematic for an older adult. the above paper really needs to stratify statistically on younger patients with a lot more data, before they make the kind of conclusion they made.
Survival after treatment of rabies with induction of coma
Rodney E Willoughby Jr 1, Kelly S Tieves, George M Hoffman, Nancy S Ghanayem, Catherine M Amlie-Lefond, Michael J Schwabe, Michael J Chusid, Charles E Rupprecht
Affiliations expand
PMID: 15958806 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa050382
Free article
Abstract
We report the survival of a 15-year-old girl in whom clinical rabies developed one month after she was bitten by a bat. Treatment included induction of coma while a native immune response matured; rabies vaccine was not administered. The patient was treated with ketamine, midazolam, ribavirin, and amantadine. Probable drug-related toxic effects included hemolysis, pancreatitis, acidosis, and hepatotoxicity. Lumbar puncture after eight days showed an increased level of rabies antibody, and sedation was tapered. Paresis and sensory denervation then resolved. The patient was removed from isolation after 31 days and discharged to her home after 76 days. At nearly five months after her initial hospitalization, she was alert and communicative, but with choreoathetosis, dysarthria, and an unsteady gait.
Not to mention that once symptoms appear it’s 100% fatal. So there is realistically no downside to trying the protocol, unless someone has a better idea someday. Sedation, antivirals and roll the dice. Very little else anyone knows to do.
The doctor in this case was 1 for 1. That’s 100% success!