Does rabies in humans cause aggression?

Question

It is true for animals for some reason , however I do not know about humans and if so, how is it possible for a patient to cause violence due to it.

If this is true , please shed some light on this phenomenon in humans.

Here's a video of violent Human behavior under Rabies starting at 1:45. ( Warning ~ Viewer's discretion advised.

Answer 1

Yes, there are two ways in which untreated rabies can develop, one, affecting roughly 70% of untreated people, is called "furious rabies" and leads to dramatic changes in behaviour. From the WHO (my bold):

The incubation period for rabies is typically 1–3 months, but may vary from <1 week to >1 year. The initial symptoms of rabies are fever and often pain or an unusual or unexplained tingling, pricking or burning sensation (paraesthesia) at the wound site. As the virus spreads through the central nervous system, progressive, fatal inflammation of the brain and spinal cord develops.

Two forms of the disease can follow. People with furious rabies exhibit signs of hyperactivity, excited behaviour, hydrophobia and sometimes aerophobia. After a few days, death occurs by cardiorespiratory arrest.

Paralytic rabies accounts for about 30% of the total number of human cases. This form of rabies runs a less dramatic and usually longer course than the furious form. The muscles gradually become paralyzed...

Health organisations are always quite restrained in their descriptions of psychological or behaviour-related symptoms, and the violent behaviour tends to follow indirectly from the combination of "rabid" hyperactivity and fear.

For a more vivid description, here's an article in i09 discussing how this kind of rabies inspired popular tropes in zombie fiction:

They start becoming disoriented and lose lucidity. Eventually, they develop more aggressive symptoms. The mildest of these symptoms is simple irritability. People, metaphorically, snap at those around them. Because they're hyperactive and restless, they tend to get annoyed with many people very quickly. As the disease progresses, though, they become more physically violent. A man in Mumbai became so violent that hospital personnel evacuated his room and eventually had to call the police and the fire brigade to pacify him enough for a sedative.

This isn't the fault of the victims. They're not necessarily trying to do any harm. The virus works, generally, by increasing fear. One of the telltale symptoms of rabies (and one of the few not mentioned in zombie movies) is hydrophobia. People become terribly afraid of water... [video] ...The man in Mumbai began getting violent, because hospital staff were trying to hydrate him.

So the aggression and violence is a real and common consequence of untreated rabies, albeit as an indirect result of how the direct symptoms combine. This is a fairly arcane distinction, however: for example, the very down-to-earth NHS patient information pages put it more simply:

Initial symptoms of rabies last for two to 10 days before more severe symptoms start to develop. These typically include aggressive behaviour, hallucinations, agitation and producing lots of saliva.