this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2026
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I heard on a podcast that it is somewhat common (more than 0.001% anyway) in developing countries for people to test positive for rabies antibodies even though they hadn't been treated for it. Implying that they had been exposed but somehow overcame it.
I thought it was radiolab but I can't find it now...
There's a minimal viral load for any infection to beat the immune system (which is obviously variable by circumstances), for example HIV is actually present in saliva but in quantity too low to spread that way.
Your body is producing antibodies for infections that never progressed to disease right now, it's all a matter of exposure and circumstance. Whenever you see mortality numbers it's always for an infection that has caused disease.
Keeping in mind infection is the pathogen entering the body and multiplying and a disease is when it damages enough cells to cause illness or symptoms (though the line gets blurry at times)
Anyways, point is that's normal and expected and basically just means rabies is endemic to the region. Rabies has a relatively low required viral load but like most pathogens it's less infectious spread some ways than others.