Rabies: Symptoms and Treatment

Rabies is a disease caused by a virus typically from a bite of an animal infected with the virus. The virus itself attacks the central nervous system, including the spinal cord and brain. While incubating, the virus spreads along your body’s nerves toward your brain. The typical incubation is about 10 days, but in rare cases, it may last an entire year.

Once the virus reaches your spinal cord or brain, it causes inflammation that may result in encephalopathy and eventual death.

Risk Factors for Rabies

Fortunately, instances of rabies infections have decreased over the years thanks to widespread animal vaccinations. However, if you’re ever bitten by an animal, there are a few risk factors that may indicate your likelihood of developing rabies, including the following:

• You’re bitten in an area where there have been reports of rabies in animals.
• The animal that bit you is displaying strange, aggressive behavior.
• The saliva of the animal that bit you comes into contact with a wound on your body.

Causes of Rabies

Rabies happens when a rabid animal bites you. The virus enters your body through the bite wound and travels through your nervous system to your brain and spinal cord. However, in rare cases, you may get rabies from non-bite exposure such as inhaling particles of the virus or an infected animal licks your mouth, eyes, nose, or skin. Some of the more high-risk animals to watch out for that may carry the virus include the following:

• Bats
• Foxes
• Woodchucks
• Raccoons
• Skunks
• Wild Dogs

Domestic animals, such as dogs and cats, may also get the virus if bitten by a rabid animal, so it’s always important to ensure your pet receives the vaccination against the virus.

Symptoms of Rabies

With rabies, it’s common for symptoms to take up to three months to appear as the virus travels along your nerves to your brain and spinal cord. Some of the first symptoms you may experience include:

• Tingling or pain near the bite site
• Fever
• Headache
• Depression
• Vomiting
• Nausea

As the virus grows more severe and attacks your brain and spinal cord, neurological symptoms may set in. These include the following:

• Confusion
• Anxiety
• Hallucinations
• Excessive salivating
• Insomnia
• Excessive excitement
• Paralysis in your legs
• Sore throat
• Difficulty swallowing
• Hydrophobia
• Restlessness

Diagnosis of Rabies

If an animal recently bit you and you think you might have rabies, contact your doctor. You should also try to track down the animal that bit you. Depending on the animal’s behavior, it may have to undergo a period of observation. The other option is to euthanize the animal to perform tests on its brain that will confirm whether the rabies virus is present. If there’s confirmation that the animal was rabid, your doctor will discuss treatment options with you.

Treatment of Rabies

Unfortunately, there are no effective treatment options for rabies once symptoms begin to appear. However, individuals can protect against the disease with vaccines that provide immunity as long as administered shortly after exposure to the virus.

Prognosis of Rabies

If your doctor treats the virus before the symptoms set in, the prognosis for rabies in humans is good. However, after symptoms set in, the prognosis worsens and may even result in death.

Complications of Rabies

There are a lot of complications associated with rabies, including the following:

• Cardiac failure
• Brain infection
• Respiratory failure
• Coma
• Death