Rabies

Rabies

  Causes of Rabies: Rabies is caused by a virus that is in the saliva of infected animals, and it is usually transmitted by bites from infected animals. All warm-blooded animals can get rabies, and some may serve as natural reservoirs of the virus.¹

Types of Rabies: Furious rabies (  early uncontrolled behavior including biting ), Dumb rabies ( later stages with apparent calm due to paralysis )

 Incubation period for Rabies: Typically 30-50 days after exposure; as fast as 14 days for a severe bite or multiple bites; a year or longer is rare but possible.
  

Incubation period for Rabies: When symptoms do appear, it is usually 30 to 50 days following exposure. There is a direct relationship between how severe the bite is and where on the body the person bitten and how long it takes for symptoms to appear. For example, if a person's head is severely bitten, symptoms may show up in as few as 14 days. Under rare conditions, a person may not have symptoms for a year or longer after exposure to the virus.¹

Risk factor list:

• Animal bite - wild animals or domestic pets , Wild animal bite - almost any warm-blooded animal: raccoons, skunks, bats, foxes; rarer in rabbits, squirrels, rats, and opossums, Animal saliva - less common than an actual bite., Mucous membrane exposure - contact with the eyes, nose or mouth, Raccoon bite, Skunk bite, Bat bite, Fox bite, Dog bite, Cat bite, Wolves, International travel

Symptoms of Rabies

• Mental depression - for a short period, Restlessness, Itching - around the bite site, Headache, Fever, Tiredness, Malaise, Nausea, Sore throat, Loss of appetite, Depression, Irritability, Stiff muscles, Pupil dilation, Increased saliva, Drooling, Sound sensitivity, Light sensitivity, Temperature sensitivity
• Symptoms of progressing rabies include the following extremely serious life-threatening symptoms: Episodic mania, Episodic calm, Restlessness, Feverishness, Convulsions, Painful throat spasms, Difficulty swallowing, Hydrophobia (fear of water) - an irrational reaction or spasm on seeing or drinking water, Progressive paralysis, Cardiac failure, Respiratory failure
• Symptoms of animals with rabies include: Change in behavior, Fever , Loss of appetite, Change in phonation, Changed dog bark tone, Restlessness, Agitatation, Trembling, Barking, Growling, Aggression, Attacking, Jaw paralysis, Drooling, Foaming saliva, Convulsions, Paralysis .

If the disease has progressed, a person will have episodes of irrational excitement which alternate with periods of alert calm. Convulsions are common. Most dramatic of all are the severe and extremely painful throat spasms suffered by the person when trying to swallow – or even upon seeing – liquids. This reaction to water, sometimes seen as a fear of it, is typical in people with rabies and gives the disease its medical name, hydrophobia.

A person usually dies from cardiac or respiratory failure within a week after the appearance of rabies symptoms, while the excited state is most prominent. If the patient survives this stage, muscle spasms and agitation stop, only to be replaced by a growing paralysis leading to death.
 

Once symptoms appear, the only treatment is strong support to help the person feel more comfortable. This support includes controlling the symptoms in the respiratory, circulatory, and central nervous systems. People do not recover and eventually die from the infection. ¹

Early signs of rabies in animals include a change in behavior, fever, loss of appetite, and often, a change in phonation, such as a change in tone of a dog's bark. These signs are often slight, however, and people may not notice them. A few days after infection, the animal may be very restlessness and become very agitated and tremble. An affected dog may growl and bark constantly, and will viciously attack any moving object, person, or animal it comes across. This excited state usually lasts three to seven days, and is followed by convulsions and paralysis.

In some instances, signs of excitement and irritability are slight or absent, and paralysis develops within a few days of disease onset. In cases of this type, an early sign is often paralysis of the lower jaw, accompanied by increased drooling and foaming of saliva. The animal may appear to be choking on a foreign object. This is a dangerous trap for humans, who, in trying to help the animal, may expose themselves to infection without knowing it. ¹

Tests and diagnosis discussion for Rabies: Laboratory tests to make sure that the diagnosis is correct involve looking for the rabies virus in your saliva or brain tissue. Unfortunately, this is usually not possible until late in the disease.

Complications list for Rabies: Brain infection, Cardiac failure, Respiratory failure, Death - about 80% of cases
prevention list:

• Immediately clean the animal bite wound - use soap and water, or just water if no soap.
• Seek immediate medical attention - after a bite or exposure.
• Rabies vaccine shots - taken as a safeguard, or as a preventive treatment after a bite or exposure.
• Pet vaccination
• Lifestock vaccination
• Seal house animal entry points
• Keep your dog on a leash when it's outside of the yard and do not chain it inside the yard.
• Avoid contact with wild or unfamiliar animals, and don't touch them even when they are dead.
• Seal basement, porch, and attic openings and cap chimneys to prevent animals from entering your home.
• Report strays or animals acting strangely or sick to your local animal control authorities.

¹

About prognosis: The prognosis of Rabies may include the duration of Rabies, chances of complications of Rabies, probable outcomes, prospects for recovery, recovery period for Rabies, survival rates, death rates, and other outcome possibilities in the overall prognosis of Rabies. Naturally, such forecast issues are by their nature unpredictable.

Treatments of Rabies discussion: If you have been bitten or scratched by any animal, you should:

• Clean the wound immediately with soap and water to remove saliva from the area,
• Call a doctor right away, and
• Notify the state or local health department.

The first treatment ( passive immunization ) provides immediate but temporary protection by injecting antibodies one dose of human rabies immunoglobulin (HRIG) shots into the patient.
After that, give a rabies shot, which starts the body producing its own antibodies. It takes some time for it, but these antibodies provide longer-lasting protection. Because rabies has an unusually long incubation period

There are now three types of rabies vaccines, all of which are made from killed rabies virus:

• Human diploid cell vaccine (HDCV),
• Rabies vaccine adsorbed (RVA), and
• Purified chick embryo cell culture (PCEC).

# there`s five shots with one of these vaccines into your upper arm muscle over a four-week period. it can cause mild reactions such as swelling or redness at the vaccine site, headache, fever, nausea, muscle aches, and dizziness.
# If you are in high risk of being bitten by an animal, get pre-exposure shots with a rabies vaccine,three injections over four weeks.
# If you are traveling to endemic areas, you should also get the pre-exposure shots.if you do come in contact with the rabies virus, then the post-exposure regimen would require only two booster injections.
#People with continuing risk of exposure should receive a booster about every two years.