The Severe Danger of Animal Bite-Human Rabies.

I took a close look at the card for my pet's first vaccination today for the first time, and I saw boldly written on it ''Prevent the horror of rabies''. I know that we have heard a thing or two about rabies, but maybe not just so much to know how far we need to stay away from it.

Human rabies is a seriously underreported case that has continuously created constant medical issues. Most rabies patients end up dying at home, with the terrible symptoms untreatable.

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There are two common ways for rabies to get into the human body, either through a bite from a bat or a dog. Rabies is gotten through an infection with the RABV virus, when rabies gets to affect humans, it begins to cause symptoms like; paralysis, hallucinations, and seizures. For domestic dogs, I know we can vaccinate and prevent further risk, but what do we do then with bats?

Once humans are exposed to rabies, quick vaccination could save the day, but without quick vaccination, if symptoms are left for a while, rabies becomes fatal. The transmission of rabies is through direct contact, it happens in the presence of broken skin, or mucous membrane in the eye, mouth, or nose, contact with saliva, or the brain/nervous system tissue from an animal that is infected.

When rabies finds its way into the human body, it moves very slowly along the path of the nerves into the central nervous system, which is the spinal cord and the brain. When it gets to your brain, the damage begins to cause neurological symptoms. From this point, we begin to get a case of coma and death.

The movement of rabies from the point of bite to the central nervous system does not happen instantly, it could either take a few days or even a few weeks. The entire process of transmission usually takes four (4) solid phases;

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The Incubation Phase: At this point, it is still easy to save the day, if adequate treatment is received during this stage, the affected person won't get rabies. There is no displayed symptom at this stage, so it is okay if we still regard it as a safe spot here.

The Prodromal Phase: The prodromal phase begins when the rabies virus has entered your nervous system. RABV travels through the nerve cells and enters the brain and the spinal cord, and as it moves, it causes nerve damage along the line. At this stage, the immune system would try to fight back, and the affected person would begin to feel flu-like symptoms. Nerve damage may create pain, numbness, and tingling at the point of bite, this phase will take about 2-10 days, and at this point, there is no form of treatment that would prove effective.

This phase comes with associated symptoms like; Nausea and vomiting, cough, sore throat, tiredness, fever, muscle pain, diarrhea, bite wound burning, tingling, pain, or numbness.

Acute Neurologic Phase: When it gets to this stage, the rabies virus begins to damage the brain and the spinal cord. Some people would experience furious rabies with symptoms like seizures, aggression, and delirium. Other people would experience paralytic rabies characterized by symptoms like weakness and paralysis coming from the bite spot to other parts of the body.

Furious rabies could last for a few days to a week, while paralytic rabies could last for up to a month. Associated symptoms include; seizures, restlessness, aggression and agitation, the fear of water, fever, muscle twitching, racing heart, and fast breathing.
Paralytic symptoms of rabies include; neck stiffness, headache, fever, paralysis, coma, tingling, and severe weakness, especially from the point of bite.

Coma: A lot of people affected by rabies usually enter into a coma at the final stage of the infection, and from there eventually die.

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There is a vaccine for rabies that you may take even before the bite, if you have previously been vaccinated before exposure, you will only need two shots after the bite, but without prior vaccination, you will need four shots of the vaccine.

Rabies isn't a joke, so you shouldn't even wait for symptoms for symptoms to start showing before you rush to the hospital for treatment. The moment you have been bitten or scratched by a pet or a wild animal, instantly speak with a medical expert. Upon arrival at the medical center, tests for rabies such as; saliva test, skin biopsy, cerebrospinal fluid test, blood tests, and MRI could be carried out.

As a pet owner, protect yourself and others by ensuring that your pet's vaccinations are up-to-date, and ensure as well that your pet does not roam around freely. Please stay away from wildlife, and do not try to be a superhero for an animal you know nothing about, if you find a bat in your room, just assume there has been a bite and get to the hospital because bat bites are very small and they fade off very quickly too without getting noticed.

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References.

jstor.org/stable

my.clevelandclinic.org/health

itmedicalteam.pl/articles

petmd.com/dog/care