Rabies, infectious disease

What is rabies?

Rabies is a rare but very serious disease. Specifically, rabies is a zoonosis (disease transmitted to humans by animals) caused by a virus that is transmitted by bite or by contact of wounds with saliva of infected domestic and wild animals.

It is a disease present throughout the world, and almost the 50% of cases occur in children between 4 and 15 years old. In our environment, as most domestic animals are vaccinated, it is not frequent, but in poor rural areas of Asia and Africa, where a large part of the animals are not vaccinated, there is a higher incidence and mortality from this disease.

The rabies virus and how it is transmitted

It is a family virus Rhabdoviridae and only type 1 causes the disease in humans. Dogs are the main reservoir of the virus, being the animal that most frequently transmits rabies to humans. It is for this reason that the vaccination mandatory of these animals. This does not mean that we are 100% safe from rabies since, in developed countries like ours, the virus is found in bats, foxes, raccoons, ferrets and wolves.

The virus is transmitted through a person's saliva by bite, through mucous membranes (such as the lining of the mouth and eyes), or by licking injured or injured areas of skin. More rarely it is transmitted by inhalation in caves contaminated with bat guano (droppings). It is never passed from one person to another.

The rabies virus is usually transmitted by the bite of an infected animal. The virus enters the body through the open skin of a wound, the eyes, the nose, or the mouth and travels to the brain through nerves. There it multiplies and causes inflammation and injury.

Signs and symptoms

The first symptoms can appear from a few days to more than a year after receiving the bite. Two periods are defined in the infection:

• Incubation period: incubation is very uncertain, it can be from several days to a year and this depends on the amount of virus that the animal has inoculated in the child and the distance from the lesion to the central nervous system (brain).
• Rotomic phase: it usually lasts two weeks and symptoms may appear in the area of ​​the bite of itching, burning, tingling, or numbness. They can be accompanied by fever, muscle aches, nausea, fatigue, and headache.

Anger can take two forms:

• Raging rage: It's the most frequent form. The child has symptoms of hyperactivity and nervousness, disorientation, hallucinations, may have seizures and spasms in the neck that are accompanied by hypersalivation (perhaps the most typical image of anger, the "foam at the mouth"). In a few days, the child passes away.
• Paralytic rabies: it appears in 30% of cases and is not as sudden as the previous one. The symptoms are paralysis of the muscles near the bite until slowly reaching a coma and ending with a fatal outcome.

In conclusion, it is a very serious and fatal disease without treatment. Rabies can be prevented if the person who has been bitten receives treatment as soon as possible.

The animal is suspected of being at increased risk of rabies if:

• The offending animal is of a species that can be a reservoir for rabies.
• The aggression took place in an area or country where there is rage.
• The animal looks bad or its behavior is abnormal.
• The saliva of the animal has contaminated a wound or mucosa.
• The bite did not occur in response to provocation.
• The animal is not vaccinated

Treatment

If rabies symptoms start, there is no effective treatment. Therefore, efforts are focused on prevent disease, obligatorily vaccinating the dogs and trying to stop it just after the child has been bitten by a suspicious animal. In the event that a child or adult has been the victim of an attack by an animal suspected of having rabies (dog or wild animal), they must go immediately to a hospital.

First of all, the wound will be thoroughly washed and an anti-rabies immunoglobulin will be administered immediately, which offers immediate protection until the vaccine begins to take effect. Said vaccine is administered on the same day and three more doses are given on days 3, 7 and 14.

How can it be prevented?

To reduce the chances of contracting rabies it is recommended:

• Vaccinate at
• Report the presence of stray or wild animals to the health authorities.
• Prevent children from touching or approaching unknown or wild animals.
• If you travel to endemic areas with a high risk of rabies.

• Rabies is a rare but very serious disease. Specifically, it is a zoonosis (disease transmitted to humans by animals) caused by a virus that is transmitted by bite or by contact of wounds with saliva from infected domestic and wild animals.
• Rabies is a very serious and fatal disease without treatment.
• If rabies symptoms start, there is no effective treatment. For this reason, efforts are focused on preventing the disease, obligatorily vaccinating dogs and trying to stop it just after the child has been bitten by a suspicious animal.