Until recently if you had rabies, and it advanced to where you had definite symptoms it was almost always fatal. By the time they could be sure what you had it was too late to do anything but keep the patient as comfortable as possible, and watch them die.

Now there is a treatment protocol that seems to work. There was an earlier case where they saved a girl in the late stages of rabies. But I always figure the first case may be a fluke. Now they have pulled a second one out of the fire, and it looks like they are on a roll.

http://scienceblogs.com/erv/2011/06/another_rabies_survivor.php

Medical science marches on and we learn more every day. I'm looking forward to the day when treating rabies is a well established protocol. A day when a person showing symptoms can be given good odds of a cure instead of a death sentence.

Until we have better treatments, or a vaccine for humans, this is good news.