September 28th is World Rabies Day every year. You may not know that rabies is reported in more than 150 countries and regions around the world. The infection causes tens of thousands of deaths every year, mainly in Asia. and Africa.
Now more and more people keep cats, dogs and pets. I believe that everyone has encountered themselves, relatives, friends and pets more or less in their lives when they are “intimate” by cats. The unfortunate incident of dog scratching. Then I went to the Baidu search engine and typed out the words “what if I got rabies”. As expected, a series of big words with eye-catching colors such as “dangerous”, “aphobia of water” and “100% fatality rate” appeared. , I was dumbfounded, my back was cold, and I even felt that I would not be able to swallow my saliva in the next second, my swallowing muscle spasm, and I was afraid of water to death…
So what exactly is rabies?
Which animals can get rabies?
What is the incubation period for rabies? What are the clinical manifestations? Will the symptoms be like “rabies”?
Here are the answers to your concerns about rabies and vaccinations:
What is rabies?
Rabies is a zoonotic infectious disease caused by the rabies virus, which spreads primarily through broken skin (including fresh or unhealed wounds) bitten or scratched by infected animals Or mucous membranes (including intact mucous membranes, such as oral cavity, perineum, etc.) invade the human body, causing disease.
Which animals can get rabies?
Natural rabies virus storage host animals include carnivores and chiroptera, such as foxes, wolves, jackals, weasel badgers, raccoon dogs, skunks, raccoons, meerkats, and bats. It is also a natural storage host for rabies, and can be infected with rabies virus as a source of infection, and then infect pigs, cattle, sheep and horses and other livestock. Rabies-susceptible animals mainly include canines, felines and chiroptera, and poultry, fish, insects, lizards, turtles and snakes do not infect and transmit rabies virus. Human rabies in my country is mainly caused by dogs, followed by cats.
What is the incubation period when a person has rabies? What are the clinical manifestations? Will the symptoms be like “rabies”?
The natural course of rabies can be divided into five stages: incubation period, prodromal period, acute neurological symptom period (excited period), paralysis period, and death. The development of the disease is a continuous process, and the stages cannot be completely separated.
01 Incubation Period
Being bitten by an animal (dog, cat, etc.) until the period before the onset of symptoms without any symptoms. Most are 1-3 months, less than 1 week or more than 1 year are rare.
02 prodromal period
Usually 2-4 days, usually with atypical symptoms such as malaise, anorexia, fatigue, headache and fever, unprovoked fear, anxiety, agitation, irritability, nervousness, insomnia or depression and other symptoms.
03 Acute neurological symptom period
Usually lasts 1-3 days and is divided into manic type and paralysis type.
Manic cases are characterized by extreme fear, hydrophobia, wind phobia, pharyngeal muscle spasm, difficulty breathing, difficulty urinating and defecation, and sweating and salivation;
Paralysis patients do not have typical excitation period and hydrophobia, but have high fever, headache, vomiting, and pain at the bite site as the main symptoms, followed by limb weakness, abdominal distension, ataxia, Incontinence, etc.
04 Paralysis Period
Usually lasts 6-18 hours. It refers to the period when the case gradually enters a quiet state after the acute neurological symptom period. At this time, the spasm stops, the case gradually becomes quiet, and flaccid paralysis occurs, especially the limb flaccid paralysis is the most common.
05 Deaths
Case died soon after the paralysis period stopped breathing and heartbeat. Cases often die from respiratory and heart failure 7-10 days after the first clinical symptoms appear.
Author: Hu Yifei Ni Xue
Technical guidance: Yu Chun, Tao Zhongfa
Editor: He Tingyi
Review: Chen Huijuan
Review: Luo Taiping