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Rabies virus

Agent summary : Rhabdoviridiae. Rabies. Worlfd wide. Zoonosis: canines, bats, others, contact. Vaccine. HAZARD GROUP 3

* CONOMY JP, LIEBOVITZ A, MCCOMBS W et al . 1977 Airborne rabies encephalitis. Neurology 27: 67–69

* WINKLER WG, FASHINELL TR, LEFFINGWELL L et al . 1973 Airborne rabies in a laboratory worker. J Amer Med Assoc 226: 1219–1221

http://www.ebsa.be/topics/LAI/viruses/Rabies_virus.htm

Airborne HIV does not worry me as much as airborne rabies would. Airborne rabies would be a truly horrific pathogen. It has a gestation period in the weeks which would give the infected plenty of time to infect others, and it is 100% fatal for those infected. It can infect many different species some of which breed rapidly thereby limiting the effectiveness of quarantine and ensuring reservoirs of the disease survive in the wild. Posted by Bob Badour at December 30, 2003 08:57 AM

There will always be a time delay between the discovery of the danger from a microbe, and the discovery of ways to protect from the danger. As long as humans delve into the mysteries of virulence and contagion, we will be accepting the risk that that time delay represents.

If scientists discover how to make the nightmare viruses spread by the airborn route, the counter-discoveries of treatment modalities might take too long to be useful. Something for homeland security to think about. Posted by RB at January 1, 2004 10:49 AM

http://www.futurepundit.com/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=1871

The point is that any mechanism by which the virus can gain entry into tissues could potentially lead to infection. Skin contact is not enough, but contact of the virus with the mucous membranes is enough (e.g. in your nose, eyes, mouth etc.), since these do not seem to represent an effective physical barrier to viral entry. Even consumption of infected animal tissue has been said to transmit the virus across the intestinal membranes. The reality is that such contact is far less common than bites, at least historically. This may not seem obvious, but it is not common for a person to inhale animal saliva, or rub it in their eyes. But it CAN happen.

Evidence for the existence of airborne rabies infection is several-fold. First, lab animals have been seen to be infected by inhaled virus. Second, there are case reports of lab workers working with viral solutions who have gotten rabies by inhalation of aerosols of that solution. Finally, simply being in a cave where a colony of bats lives (without any bites) can transmit rabies. The commonality of all of these situations is that the dose of inhaled virus is high. While I can�t say this with any certainty, I would be surprised if a single bat could produce enough airborne saliva to cause a real risk of infection by inhalation.

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/may97/861991107.Vi.r.html

There is a lot on this. Check this google search.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=airborne+rabies&spell=1