When it comes to sexual health problems, you’d probably think those to do with arousal would tend towards the lack thereof, rather than too much. However, this was not the case with a 28-year-old woman in India, who recently came to her doctor with the unusual complaint of a sudden and persistent increase in her sex drive. Her wellness was affected by constant arousal, often with no stimulation at all. The woman was referred to the department of emergency medicine at the Sri Gokulam Hospital and Research Institute in Salem, Tamil Nadu. Four days later, however, she was dead.
What disease could affect your wellbeing with distressing sexual symptoms, and then progress to death in less than a week? The answer is a virus that has practically been eliminated in this country but still threatens the health of many in the developing world; rabies. Although the first symptom associated with rabies is a fear of water (which actually a sign that the virus has paralyzed your swallowing muscles), hypersexuality is occasionally the primary symptom in some cases of the disease. The virus inflames the brain, causing hypersexuality and, when this happens, the disease has reached the point whereby it is incurable.
The researchers, who published the woman’s case in the journal Archives of Sexual Behaviour, noted that a small bite from a puppy two months earlier caused the disease, and the woman was dead two months later. According to Peter Costa, the communications director for the Global Alliance for Rabies Control, who was not involved in the Indian woman’s case, ‘Often people will say, “Well, if I have any symptoms I’ll go to the doctor,”’ but this is often too late. ‘If you’ve been bitten or suspect you’ve been licked or scratched by an infected animal, you should seek treatment within 24 hours,’ Costa notes.
While vaccination programmes have made staving off rabies almost a certainty in this country, Costa points out that between 55,000 and 70,000 people around the world die of rabies each year – that’s someone every eight minutes. More often than not, deaths occur in children under the age of 15 and in areas where there is a lack of public health resources and preventive treatment such as vaccinations. The main culprit behind the transmission of the disease is our furry little friends. Costa says, ‘The dog is responsible for more than 99% of human rabies cases.’ However, before you throw out your pets, Costa explains that in many cases in the developing world, the dogs aren’t family pets but strays or semi-strays that hang around communities.
In fact, the focus of the Global Alliance for Rabies Control is on promoting vaccination for domesticated and semi-domesticated animals, including semi-feral dogs. Costa asserts that cases of human rabies plummet when 70% of dogs in a country are vaccinated. However, Costa also believes that education is a key component in stamping out the spread of rabies for good. Had the Indian woman sought medical attention as soon as she was bitten, early treatment could have saved her life. Costa advises, ‘If you’ve been bitten, wash the wound with soap and water for about 10 minutes and then seek appropriate medical treatment.’ Costa adds that cases like the Indian woman’s are also a reminder of why mandatory vaccines for pets are so important. ‘The public health system in the United States and Europe has done just a tremendous job, to the point where I think people forget why we vaccinate our animals,’ he says. ‘Rabies is just outside the front door.’