Rabies in Moscow

The Moscow Times last week reported on a rabies outbreak in the capital. OK, only three people have died, which isn't many for a country with precipitous and alarming mortality trends. Rumors that Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov had been bitten by a rapid cat at his dacha have not been confirmed. The government has also denied allegations that rabid animals were introduced into the jail cell of fallen Yukos magnate Mikhail Khodorkovskii while he watched the Russian Wheel of Fortune, though Amnesty International has registered a protest, particularly since the Championship round was on that week.

I wouldn't be all that surprised if, shades of the freakily scary 28 Days Later, a vaccine- and treatment-resistent form of rabies were to arise out of Russia, just like the super duper TB that's been coming out of Russia's jails. After all, estimates of the number of stray dogs in Moscow range up to 30,000. Here's what Pravda wrote in an article last October entitled "Mutant Stray Dogs Attack Muscovites":

Stray dogs killed a 54-year-old woman in January. They were dragging the woman's body along the vacant ground near the garbage-pressing station for a long while, tearing the body to pieces. Dogs usually choose solitary areas and passers-by for their attacks. As a rule, one dog, a so-called scout, approaches the victim at first, and then the whole pack attacks a person.

Veterinaries say that stray dogs in big cities have become much smarter animals. Big cities turn abandoned dogs into brutal, well-organized fighters. Only smartest and strongest animals can survive in a metropolitan city

But that's Pravda, a paper who has never seemed all that interested in journalistic integrity.

Natalie's up. Must make breakfast.