Television program
to feature rabies survivor

The cable television channel Animal Planet was at UC Davis Children’s Hospital this month to produce an episode of the series “Monsters Inside Me” about Precious Reynolds, the Humboldt County grade-schooler who in 2011 became the third person in the United States known to have survived rabies infection.

The team treating Precious was led by Jean Wiedeman, a UC Davis associate professor of pediatric infectious diseases. Wiedeman coordinated her care with state, local and federal officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Carol Glaser of the California Department of Public Health's Encephalitis and Special Investigations Section, and county health departments in Humboldt and Sacramento counties.

Wiedeman diagnosed Precious and continues to guide her care. Children's Hospital Assistant Professor of Pediatric Critical-Care Medicine Theresa Murdock-Vlautin also was interviewed for the program. An airdate has not been set.

Rabies infection in humans is exceptionally rare in the U.S., with only two to nine cases reported each year. Many more people — some 30,000 annually — are exposed and receive post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) to prevent disease.

Reynolds did not receive post-exposure prophylaxis, a series of antiviral inoculations administered following infection, because the date and nature of her exposure was not known. Rabies is virtually always fatal without PEP.