We have had our first report a rabid animal in the area this year. A person in the town of Middletown is undergoing post-exposure treatment, which involves four shots over two weeks, after being bitten by a rabid raccoon earlier this week. Rabies, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is a viral disease of mammals most often transmitted through the bite of a rabid, most often wild, animal. The rabies virus infects the central nervous system, causing disease in the brain that leads to death, killing nearly 60,000 people around the world each year. Luckily, because of prevention measures, there are only a couple deaths each year in the United States.