Jeanna Giese to attend conference

Jeanna Giese is a young graduate who made rabies history when she survived the disease six years ago. 

Every year, rabies kills at least 55000 people. Jeanna is the first person known to have survived. When rabies symptoms first appeared, some weeks after a bat bit her, Jeanna was given a cocktail of drugs to induce coma and protect her brain from the disease. 

There was a moment when she appeared to be brain dead but after two weeks, she recovered sufficiently to have her breathing tube removed. She left hospital over two months after being admitted and began a rehabilitation process that took over two years. 

Now Jeanna is helping to raise awareness of this terrifying disease, and her attendance at the International Meeting in Bohol is part of that. 

The meeting, being held from 12th-14th July will also be attended by Debbie Briggs, the Executive Director of GARC and Thomas Mueller, Director of World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Rabies Surveillance & Research & OIE Reference Laboratory for Rabies - Freidrick Loeffler Institute, Germany.