8-year-old US girl survives rabies without vaccine

A rabies-infected girl who showed normally irreversible symptoms of the late-stage infection, survived miraculously in what is only the third such case in the US.

The girl, who had been scratched by a feral cat near her school, was pretty close to death when the infection was identified, according to her father, the Daily Mail reported.

No one noticed that she had been exposed to rabies virus until Precious Reynolds showed symptoms like severe body ache and muscle seizures.

Her grandmother took her to the hospital where doctors gave her only two to three percent chances of survival.

Precious' friends said the feral cat in the school premises had let only her to touch it. It was black and white, and scratched me right here on my left arm, Precious said.

As her condition had deteriorated when she was brought to hospital, she was air-lifted from her Willow Creek village to a specialty hospital.
Doctors there placed her on anti-viral medication while she was kept in drug induced coma. Doctors said she survived because her immune system proved strong.