While health and animal control officials have known for years that the rabies virus is in Bulloch County, two recent cases serve as reminders to be careful around wild or stray animals and to have your pets vaccinated. Rabies is a "preventable viral disease" that "infects the central nervous system, ultimately causing disease in the brain and death," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With a total of three confirmed and several unconfirmed cases of rabies in Bulloch County since January, the Bulloch County Health Department "urges residents to take precautions and to vaccinate their pets to protect against getting rabies," said Mary Beth Kennedy Butler, public information officer with the Southeast Health District of the Georgia Department of Public Health.