Rabies Incubation

Rabies is a disease humans can get from being bitten by an animal infected with rabies virus. Rabies has been recognized for over 4,000 years. Yet, despite great progress in diagnosis and prevention, rabies today is almost always fatal in humans who contract it and do not receive treatment.

Rabies can be totally avoided. You must recognize the exposure and quickly obtain appropriate medical care before they develop symptoms of rabies.

Where rabies is found: Human rabies is rare in the United States. Only 27 cases have been reported in people in the United States since 1990. Yet in some regions (eg South Asia, Africa and Latin America), human rabies is much more common.

The incidence of rabies in humans parallels the incidence in the animal kingdom. The considerable progress that has been made in controlling the disease in animals in the United States and other developed countries is directly responsible for this decline in human rabies.

Although human rabies is rare in the United States, between 16,000 and 39,000 people receive preventive medical treatment each year after being exposed to a potentially rabid animal. Some parts of the country have more cases of rabies than others. Rabies in wildlife accounts for more than 85% of animal rabies in the United States.

Animals carrying rabies: Raccoons are the most common wild animals infected with rabies in the United States. Skunks, foxes, bats, and coyotes are the other most frequently affected.

Bats are the most common animals responsible for the transmission of human rabies in the United States, representing more than half of human cases since 1980, and 74% since 1990. Rabid bats have been reported in all states except Hawaii.

Cats are the most common domestic animals from rabies in the United States. Dogs are the most common domestic rabid animals worldwide. Almost all wild and domestic animals can potentially rabies, but it is very rare in small rodents (rats, squirrels, chipmunks) and lagomorphs (rabbits and hares). large rodents (beavers, woodchucks / groundhogs) have been found to have rabies in some regions of the United States. In addition, fish, reptiles and birds are not known to carry the rabies virus.

For a man to rabies, two things must happen. First, you must have a contact with a rabid animal. Secondly, the contact must allow transmission of infected material, which involves exposure to saliva of infected animals usually through a bite or scratch.

infected tissue in the rabid animal includes saliva. Other potentially infectious tissue in the brain or nerve tissue. The virus is transmitted only when the virus enters the bite wounds, open sores on your skin or mucous membranes (eg, in your eyes or mouth). The virus then spreads from the site of exposure to your brain and spreads throughout the term the main organs of your body.

In addition, the bites are the most common source of transmission. Scratches by infected animals are much less likely to cause infection, but are still considered a potential source of rabies transmission. Bites or scratches are often not confirmed in the case of human rabies in bats back. Therefore, treatment might be needed after an encounter with a bat.

In 20 cases (since 1990) of human rabies associated with bats, a specific story from a bat bite could be confirmed in only 1 case. It is not known how the virus was transmitted in other cases may be undetectable by a bite.

Rabies has rarely been transmitted by other means. Examples include the inhalation of large amounts of secretions bat in the air of a cave by cave explorers two and inhaling the concentrated virus among laboratory workers who study.