Can rabies be transmitted reliably by food or drink

[tamtrible]

This is for my Nazi-killing time traveler from last time. So, time period nowish and late 1920s/early 1930s (1930 might be my sweet spot), location pretty much anywhere now, or in Germany in the '30s. Search term "can rabies be transmitted by food

Comments

[dinogrrl]

This is my thought as well. Also rabies can sometimes take a long time to finally show up and kill someone, depending on infection site and how much of the virus was transmitted. Incubation time has been recorded as ranging from a few days to over six years. Average incubation is a few months but still, that is a really long time for the victim to still be running around doing their evil thing. Rabies would be a dramatic form of murder, yes, but I would think very impractical given there's plenty of other things that would kill more reliably and quickly in this situation.

[belleweather]

Yeah, it's really a blood-to-blood or saliva-to-blood transmission.

That said, I wouldn't figure that an injectable version was too completely out of the realm of future-tech possibility. Thing is that it takes a fairly long time to kill, so it's a bit less than satisfying as a murder weapon. Also, there is a vaccine, but it wasn't widely used until 1967.

[tamtrible]

And you likely wouldn't get vaccinated if you didn't know you'd been exposed.

[tamtrible]

Well, she could get vaccinated before she starts dealing with anything. And she would not release an actual rabid animal, just a decoy animal with mocked-up rabies symptoms to explain why so many people got rabies.

[tamtrible]

Quoting the link you gave:
It is also possible, but quite rare, that people may get rabies if infectious material from a rabid animal, such as saliva, gets directly into their eyes, nose, mouth, or a wound.

I'm not sure if the rarity is because that tends not to happen much (are you going to drink saliva from a rabid dog on purpose? And rabid animals tend to be pretty bitey, so you're unlikely to get accidental saliva spray in a critical area without also getting bit), or because it's not an effective means of transmission.

[lilacsigil]

If you get HIV+ blood in your eyes or mouth it's considered exposure but in fact it's extremely unlikely to catch it that way unless you have a break in your skin such as a cut in your mouth. So if you try to transmit rabies this way you will probably get one or two who happen to have eaten a tough bit of bread or bit the inside of their lip, but generally no.

[tamtrible]

So rabies is probably not my best option.