@wh0regan, @drownedwednesday is correct! There is no cure for rabies, but there was also no reason to suspect that the cat in question was rabid; my classmate was simply voicing her anxiety about its negative vaccine status, and got belittled for it on the basis of the false assumption that cats don’t transmit rabies. This assumption probably comes from the fact that our state doesn’t legally require rabies vaccines for cats (which ironically now makes our cats more likely to transmit rabies than our dogs, because they’re less likely to be vaccinated, and more likely to be kept outside where they can be exposed to wildlife). My classmate is a vet tech and I promise you that she has a perfectly clear understanding of bacterial and viral disease, and was much more concerned about the former in this instance. I assume the cat is now vaccinated and in quarantine, per the bite wound regulations re: rabies.
In general, veterinary medical education stresses the details of zoonotic diseases far more than human medical education does, which is why you still sometimes find human general practitioners recommending that pregnant people get rid of their cats, even if the cat has been indoors-only and eating kibble its entire life, and almost certainly does not carry toxoplasmosis.
