Hi. I'm a militant atheist. Do you fear me?

[stone space]

63. Militant atheists most certainly exist.

Rabid atheists most certainly exist, also, and they should seek medical attention as quickly as possible.

Rabies can kill you.

The injections are painful, but much preferable to what the disease can do to you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prevalence_of_rabies

There are an estimated 55,000 human deaths annually from rabies worldwide

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies

Person with rabies, 1959

Signs and symptoms

The period between infection and the first flu-like symptoms is typically 2 to 12 weeks in humans. Incubation periods as short as four days and longer than six years have been documented, depending on the location and severity of the contaminated wound and the amount of virus introduced. Signs and symptoms may soon expand to slight or partial paralysis, anxiety, insomnia, confusion, agitation, abnormal behavior, paranoia, terror, and hallucinations, progressing to delirium.[2][10] The person may have hydrophobia.

Death almost always occurs 2 to 10 days after first symptoms. Survival is rare once symptoms have presented, even with the administration of proper and intensive care.[11] Jeanna Giese, who in 2004 was the first patient treated with the Milwaukee protocol,[12] became the first person ever recorded to have survived rabies without receiving successful post-exposure prophylaxis. An intention-to-treat analysis has since found this protocol has a survival rate of about 8%.[13]

Hydrophobia

Hydrophobia ("fear of water&quot is the historic name for rabies.[14] It refers to a set of symptoms in the later stages of an infection in which the person has difficulty swallowing, shows panic when presented with liquids to drink, and cannot quench his or her thirst. Any mammals infected with the virus may demonstrate hydrophobia.[15]

Saliva production is greatly increased, and attempts to drink, or even the intention or suggestion of drinking, may cause excruciatingly painful spasms of the muscles in the throat and larynx. This can be attributed to the fact that the virus multiplies and assimilates in the salivary glands of the infected animal for the purpose of further transmission through biting, and the infected animal's ability to transmit the virus will reduce significantly if he can swallow his saliva with/without external source of water.[16]

Hydrophobia is commonly associated with furious rabies that affects 80% of the infected people. The remaining 20% may experience a paralytic form of rabies that is marked by muscle weakness, loss of sensation, and paralysis. This form of rabies does not usually cause fear of water.[15]