What you need to know about rabies

Definition of rabies

Rabies is a fatal viral disease which is transmitted through the saliva or tissues from the nervous system from an infected animal (e.g. dogs, bats, foxes, skunks or meerkats) to other mammals and humans. Even strictly indoor animals can come in contact with a rabies carrier in a garden, garage on a basement. Because there is no cure for rabies, vaccination is your pets’ only protection. In communities where rabies is prevalent, pets must be vaccinated for protection against this fatal disease.

It is said that rabies is the deadliest disease on earth with a 99.9% fatality rate once symptoms have appeared.

Causes

Rabies is caused by a virus that attacks the brain. There are a few ways in which a person can become infected with the rabies virus, including animal bites, non-bite exposure, and human-to-human transmission. In most cases, what causes rabies infection is a bite from a rabid animal. Non-bite exposure and human-to-human transmissions are rare.

Symptoms

Symptoms usually develop between 20 and 60 days after exposure. Rabid animals may become aggressive, combative and highly sensitive to touch and other kinds of stimulation. And they can be vicious. This is the “furious” form of rabies, the kind traditionally associated with mad dogs.

There is also a “dumb” form of the disease in which the animal is lethargic, weak in one or more limbs and unable to raise its head or make sounds because its throat and neck muscles are paralysed. In both kinds of animal rabies, death occurs a few days after symptoms appear, usually from respiratory failure.

In humans, the course is similar. After a symptom-free incubation period that ranges from 10 days to a year or longer (the average is 30 to 50 days), the person complains of malaise, loss of appetite, fatigue, headache and fever. Over half of all patients have pain (sometimes itching) or numbness at the site of exposure. They may also complain of insomnia or depression.

Two to 10 days later, signs of nervous system damage appear, and hyperactivity, hypersensitivity, disorientation, hallucinations, seizures and paralysis set in. Death may be sudden, due to cardiac or respiratory arrest, or follow a period of coma that can last for months with the aid of life-support measures.

Treatment

It is imperative that treatment starts before any symptoms appear, so even if it is uncertain whether the animal has rabies or not, treatment must start immediately. A person bitten by an animal gets a series of anti-rabies vaccination and immune globulin injections. Modern vaccines of cell-culture or embryonated-egg origin are safe and effective.

Treatment can also be given as a precaution to people who are at risk of exposure to rabies. In this case the immunisation schedule will differ from the one given to someone who has been bitten.

 

Sources

 

Rabies. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/ith/vaccines/rabies/en/
What is rabies? Retrieved from https://rabiesalliance.org/rabies/what-is-rabies-and-frequently-asked-questions/what-is-rabies

 

(Revised by M van Deventer)