A potential new vaccine has been discovered that could offer immunity to rabies - the bite from a vampire bat.
New research shows that a small number of isolated Peruvians have natural immunity to the animal-transmitted disease that kills more than 55,000 people globally each year.
Scientists studying remote populations in the Peruvian Amazon at risk of rabies from vampire bats found 11 per cent of those tested showed protection against the disease.
Nature's vaccine? Tests of Amazonian Peruvians at risk from rabid vampire bats found 11 per cent already had immunity to the rabies virus
With only one person reporting a prior rabies vaccination, it seems 10 per cent have survived exposure to the virus without any medical intervention.
'The overwhelming majority of rabies exposures that proceed to infections are fatal,' said Amy Gilbert of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), lead author on the study.
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