![]() ![]() "The rabies virus creates a pretty effective rabies-spreading machine," she says, as maddened, infected animals bite and spread the disease through their saliva. The virus attacks the limbic system, which Murphy describes as the seat of anger, fear and desire. "It's a really awful way to go," Wasik says, "but if you take a step back, you sort of have to admire it because it is one of those pathogens that actually compels the host to spread it." Rabies is a terrible virus, causing immense suffering before it kills. "So we realized that it would be fun for us to work on a book together about it." "I started to think about all the cultural resonances of that and even just of the word 'rabid,' " Wasik says. Murphy's stories about rabies intrigued her husband. "So I've been bringing home stories about rabies from my education and from my reading for a long long time." "Veterinarians spend a lot of time thinking about rabies, even though in this country, we hardly ever see it," Murphy tells NPR's Robert Siegel. Wasik is a journalist his wife is a veterinarian, so the rabies virus seems like a natural topic for conversation. ![]() ![]() ![]() For example, the disease that the husband and wife team of Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy have written about in their new book, Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus. It describes an infection that is transmitted between species. Here's your vocabulary word for the week: zoonosis. ![]()
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