ANTEMORTEM DIAGNOSIS OF HUMAN RABIES

Human rabies is a rare but fatal disease. In the United States, the ma jority of people infected with rabies contract the disease by being bi tten by a wild animal, most commonly bats. Because rabies is so rarely seen, it is often not diagnosed until after death, at which time expo sed health care workers will require rabies prophylaxis. We describe a case for which the diagnosis was made before death. The prompt consid eration of this diagnosis allowed early isolation of the patient and p revented unnecessary risk to health care workers.