Rabies Symptoms
What is Rabies?
Rabies disease caused because of rabies virus primarily to animals containing wild and domestic animals and the human beings. People generally link rabies with the dogs but now days rabies found into the cats.
Ninety percent of the rabies can causes in domestic animals such as dogs, cats, horses, mules, goats, sheep and many more. In case of wild animals, disease reported in raccoons and skunks.
In this country, another wild species which contains the rabies are foxes, rodents and bats. The rabies virus present in infected animal's saliva is generally transmitted by scratch or bite that punctures the skin of victim.
How is rabies transmitted?
Rabies is a classic 'zoonosis'. Meaning of this is that illness is passed from one animal to another animal and from animal to human. Effect on brain causes the aggressive behavior, which make animal bite or animal attack without irritation. This rabies virus spread from saliva of animal to the bitten animal's or person's tissue.
Mucous membranes, saliva and the open small cuts are the roots of entrance of rabies virus. Cats can transfer the disease by scratching a person or to other animals.
In principle, all warm-blooded animals can be infected, but the disease is found most commonly in dogs, foxes, cats and monkeys. Main source of infection is bats. Domestic animals control it by vaccination.
Rabies Symptoms:
After the exposure, rabies symptoms develop within 20 to 60 days. Rabid animals become combative, aggressive, and are highly sensitive to touch and other kinds of stimulations and they can be cruel. This is the "furious" form of the rabies.
There is another form of disease which is "dumb" form. In this form, animal is tired, weak in limbs (one or more), and not able to raise the head and/or make the sounds because its neck and throat muscles gets paralyzed. In both types of infected animals, after few days of appearance of symptoms, death occurs.
In case of humans, same things occur. After the symptom free incubation period, the patient protests of malaise, fatigue, loss of appetite, headache and the fever. Some of the people suffering from pain, itching, numbness which is also called as depression.
After 2-10 days, appear the damage of signs of nervous system, hyperactivity and hypersensitivity, disorientation, hallucinations, seizures, and the paralysis. Death occurs suddenly because of respiratory or cardiac arrest. As the infection starts to grow, those who are infected develops the following rabies symptoms:
- Irritability
- Confusion
- Excessive movements or agitation
- Hallucinations
- Bizarre or abnormal thoughts
- Aggressiveness
- Seizures (convulsions)
- Muscle spasms
- Extreme sensitivity to bright lights, sounds, or touch
- Abnormal postures
- Weakness or paralysis (when a person cannot move some part of the body)
- Difficulty speaking
- Increased production of saliva or tears
In the extreme stage of the infection, when it spreads to the other parts of the nervous system, then rabies symptoms are as given below:
- Double vision
- Abnormal movements of the diaphragm and muscles that control breathing
- Problems moving facial muscles
- Increased production of saliva and difficulty swallowing causing the "foaming at the mouth" normally connected with a rabies infection
Diagnosis of Rabies:
The disease is diagnosed based on family of patient and characteristic of the disease in developing countries.
In developed countries, the doctor sends the samples of tissues of infected person to the laboratory, where virus may be detected and confirm the diagnosis. In case of animals, checks the samples of brain tissue from the dead animal for diagnosing the rabies.
Rabies Vaccine:
Pre-exposure Immunization: It is strongly suggested that those at high occupational or recreational risk should be vaccinated. Peoples having professionally highest risk are wildlife biologists, taxidermists, and recreational or professional trappers, especially those peoples traveling to the Third World countries, where often domestic infected animals are seen. The CDC suggests vaccination if going in Third World countries for the period longer than thirty days.
Treatment for Rabies:
Post-exposure Prophylaxis: Any wild animal that bites to a person should be immediately killed, and the brain sent for the diagnosis. The animal which gets infected with the rabies virus could discard the virus within two weeks before showing ill with the rabies virus.
Should obtain the good history:
- Whether the bite was unprovoked or provoked
- Bites to the face and hands carry the highest risk.
- A fully vaccinated dog or cat is unlikely to become infected with rabies, although some rare cases have been reported, especially when they only got a single dose and did not have the complete regimen.
The CDC gives advises that a healthy cat, dog or the ferret which bites to a person should be limited and observed for the ten days.
At the hospital, doctor gives the treatment as, doctor firstly clean the wound carefully make sure that tetanus of the child vaccinations is current.
For keeping the potential infection from the spreading, doctor starts treating the child in a right way. Doctor uses shots of human rabies immune globulin at the wound site and vaccine given in to the arm of patient. This treatment is based on situations of the bite that is unprovoked or provoked, type of the animal that is specific, domestic or wild and advice of local health authorities.
Prevention:
You must reduce the chances of reducing the rabies for that vaccinate your pets such as cats, dogs, and the ferrets which are infected by rabies. Tell to the kids that animals are strangers too. They should never feed stray cats, dogs wandering elsewhere or neighborhood or never touch to them..
Precaution against any infection or rabies immediately calls to the doctor if:
- If the child has been showing to bats, even if there is no bite
- If the child has been showing to an animal that might have rabies, but is too young to describe the contact with the animal
- If you plan to travel abroad and may come in contact with the rabid animals, particularly if you are traveling to an area where you might not have access to health care
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