Rabies in humans
Rabies in humans is very dangerous. It causes serious inflammation, and once the virus spreads to the brain, death is very likely.[1]
People get rabies by being bitten or scratched by a rabid animal (an animal that has rabies). Usually, the animal's saliva carries the virus.[2]
Rabies exists in over 150 countries and territories across the world.[3] Up to 95% of human deaths from rabies occur in Africa and Asia, especially in poor rural communities where there is little or no access to vaccines and post-exposure medications.[3]
Transmission
[change | change source]The rabies virus is usually carried in an animal's saliva. Cats, bats, raccoons, skunks, foxes, coyotes, and other wild animals can carry rabies.[2], but dog bites and scratches cause 99% of all rabies deaths.[3] Dog-mediated rabies (rabies spread by dogs) kills tens of thousands of people around the world every year, including many children.[3]
It is rare for human saliva to carry rabies. There has never been a recorded instance where a person got rabies from being bitten by another human.
The rabies vaccine can prevent a person from developing rabies.[2] So can post-exposure prophylaxis (treatment given after a person is bitten or scratched).[2]
Symptoms
[change | change source]The initial symptoms of rabies include nausea, vomiting, headache, tiredness, and pain or numbness at the site of the animal bite or scratch.[2] Because many different illnesses (like the flu) cause these symptoms, an infected person may not realise at first that they have rabies. Unfortunately, once a person starts showing signs and symptoms of rabies, the disease is almost always fatal.[2]
If post-exposure prophylaxis is not given soon enough, the virus spreads to the central nervous system (which includes the brain and the spinal cord). This causes rabies encephalitis (inflammation in the brain), and as rabies reaches its final stages, severe neurological symptoms develop.[2]
These final symptoms of rabies can include confusion, delirium, aggression, hallucinations, abnormal behavior, hydrophobia (fear of water), light sensitivity, and excessive salivation.[4] (This last symptom accounts for the "foaming at the mouth" appearance of some animals at the end stage of rabies.)[4] After this point, rabies is fatal.[2]