Rabies, one of humanity's most ancient and feared diseases, has
spread rapidly among the canines of South Texas and in raccoons on
the eastern seaboard. The United States, with the world's most
complex rabies problems, has seemed helpless in the face of this
dangerous outbreak, the worst in decades.
In Mad Dogs: The New Rabies Plague, Don Finley chronicles the
epidemic, the politics of response to it, and the most ambitious
American attempt yet to erect a barrier against the disease -- in
Texas. He tells the stories of those who have been plagued by
rabies, and those who have accepted the charge to end the
plague.
In South Texas, normally timid coyotes have become fearless,
challenging ranch dogs twice their size, attacking an infant on her
porch swing, and menacing oil field workers. More ominously, they
have infected hundreds of pet dogs, resulting in the exposure of
some fifteen hundred people in South Texas to the dreaded disease.
Three people, including a fourteen-year-old boy, have died, and the
leading edge of the plague line is approaching San Antonio, one of
the nation's ten largest cities.
Despite the fact that European nations and Canada have nearly
eliminated rabies among wild animals, the virus has been able to
spread in the United States because the federal government is
unique in its stance that rabies is a local health problem.
Controversy over who will pay for a federally approved vaccine is
ongoing, even as the virus crosses state and national lines.
The struggle to develop an effective oral rabies vaccination
program in the United States began three decades ago. Finley
describes the professional feuds, often between scientists and
public health officials, thathindered the efforts. In 1995, the
USDA granted permission to drop an experimental, genetically
engineered vaccine over nearly fifteen thousand square miles of
South Texas brushlands in an effort to stop the spread of the
disease.
Finley's straightforward language, free of either jargon or
hysteria, is a welcome approach in describing the disease's
destructive effects. His rare inside look into the politics and the
science of disease control within public bureaucracies will engross
those interested in science and public health issues, pet owners
and wildlife enthusiasts, and those fascinated by infectious
disease threats.
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