$2000 x 1000 = lots of girl scout cookies

This article in WaPo says that around a thousand girls have been exposed to rabies while at girl scout camp. The monetary cost of treating the girls is about $2000 per person and the Girl Scouts are picking up the tab since the girls were exposed while at Girl Scout camp.

While I think that's the right thing for them to do, goodness, what an unexpected expense.

Back in the day I used to be an assistant brownie leader. It was great fun, for me and for my girls. I think we went camping once. It's hard to imagine having to tell all the parents of your troop that everyone needs some barbaric, expensive, painful treatment because they went to your camp.

It seems to me that rabies research should be further along. As far as I know (and I could be wildly wrong) you still have to look at the brain of the animal to see if it is infected. Why not blood tests? My understanding is that the rabies virus in people is similar to HIV in that it is a slow virus; you can have it for a long time before it makes you ill and of course we've got no treatment for rabies, just prevention.

We found a fox out in the field with the horses once, it was a kit and had been knocked in the head by the horses and we took it to the rescue center down in Bowie but they had to send it to be tested. It didn't have rabies but still ended up dead. It was very sad.

We also had a rabid raccoon at the barn and that was pretty scary. Even the people from animal control thought it was a pet that had gotten out. Until it started spinning in circles and biting itself while foam flew everywhere that is. We had locked it in a stall, partly to keep the dogs away but the one animal control fellow was sure it was tame and was actually reaching down to pick it up when it went nuts.

I've always stressed to my kids that if a wild animal will let you touch it there's something wrong it but it's very hard to resist them and oh boy can they ever fool you.