Understanding Rabies Virus: Transmission, Symptoms, and Prevention.

KOMPAS.com – Rabies is a disease caused by a virus and is generally transmitted through the bite of an infected animal.

Cases of rabies infecting humans have occurred frequently. The rabies virus is often found in wild animals and pets that are not vaccinated.

This rabies infection in animals or even infects humans, is often known as mad dog disease.

The rabies virus, as reported by the CDC, Thursday (11/5/2023) can infect the central nervous system in mammals. In the end, the virus infection causes disease in the brain and can even be fatal which ends in death.

Generally, in America, cases of rabies that are reported every year occur in wild animals such as bats, raccoons, skunks, and foxes.

Rabies virus and its structure

The rabies virus belongs to the order Mononegavirales, namely viruses with non-segmented negative-stranded RNA genomes.

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Within this group of rabies viruses, viruses with distinct ‘bullet’ shapes are classified in the family Rhabdoviridae, including at least three animal virus genera, Lyssavirus, Ephemerovirus, and Vesiculovirus.

The genus Lyssavirus includes rabies virus, Lagos bat, Mokola virus, Duvenhage virus, European bat viruses 1 and 2, and Australian bat viruses.

Meanwhile, the virus structure in the Rhabdovirus family has a length of about 180 Nm and a width of 75 Nm.

Meanwhile, the rabies genome encodes five proteins, including nucleoprotein (N), phosphoprotein (P), matrix protein (M), glycoprotein (G) and polymerase (L).

All of these Rhabdovirus families share two main structural components, which include a helical ribonucleoprotein (RNP) core and an envelope around it.

Rabies is an RNA virus whose genome encodes five proteins. These five protein sequences and the RNA genome determine the structure of the rabies virus.

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