Time to appreciate Avicenna’s knowledge of rabies

The treatment of infectious diseases determines its
history back to the research of many scientists, such as
Persian scholars. The outstanding Persian scientist Avicenna
(980-1037 AD) who is remembered for his contributions to
the science of medicine was a master in curing many
diseases like rabies.
It is possible to analyze Avicenna’s opinions about rabies
and his contributions to this problem of medicine through a
study of his famous and great medical manuscript Al-Qanunphi-al-Tibb (The Canon of Medicine) which is one of the
most important textbooks ever written on many medical
issues such as rabies (1).
Rabies is an acute, progressive, and fatal
anthropozoonotic infection that affect the central nervous
system and is estimated that approximately 100,000 people
die from it each year, although the true number is much
higher because of underreporting (2, 3).
In Iranian traditional medicine, the word rabies means
madness that is transmitted through a close contact with
infected saliva via bites or scratches (4). Iranian physicians
have written much and introduced their innovations in their
works now and before (5).
Avicenna suggested that the imbalance of the four
humors causes different diseases like rabies. Based on his
view, therapeutic interventions sh