Pathogenesis effect of hydrophobia on rabies?

See below: People affected by rabies are not actually afraid of water but their anxiety seems exaggerated by encounter with water because of dysphagia (difficulty in swallowing).

Here's why: Animals with rabies cannot swallow their saliva and this make them more likely to transmit the infectious agent via a bite. The disease also makes them want to bite others by damaging the brain. So the different aspects of the infection work together to transmit it.