Rabies

Rabies, a virus of the nervous system and salivary glands is a fast moving killer, it’s not something to mess around with Rabies comes from the Latin word ‘to rage’. Rabies is easily associated with rage. When people think of rabies, they usually think of a mad raccoon or dog, foaming at the mouth and running around crazy; dying soon after. The thought of going crazy is a pretty reasonable guess for how rabies torments its victims. The virus enters through a bite or transfer of infected saliva and makes its way through the nerves toward your spinal cord and brain.
Obviously, rabies is an extremely deadly virus that affects the nervous system. Immediately after being bitten, you need to seek medical attention. Rabies is a very fatal virus that, without proper medical attention, will kill its victims very swiftly, but there are ways to help. There is a vaccine for people who are likely to get rabies, and there is a vaccine that, if used immediately after the exposure to the rabid animal, can save the victim of rabies.
Most often the cause of contamination is through the bite of a rabid animal. The virus then spreads through the nerves until it reaches the central nervous system, which is the spinal cord and the brain. Then the virus incubates in the infected creature’s body for approximately 3-12 weeks. The victim shows no signs of illness during this ‘incubation period’. When the virus reaches the brain, it multiplies rapidly, passes to the salivary glands, and the infected creature usually dies within 1 week of becoming sick. Within four or five days, the victim may then either slip into a months long coma ending in death or die suddenly of cardiac arrest. Rabies is extremely dangerous. It’s important to treat the wound when you have been bitten, but the disease isn’t always transmitted through a bite.
There are other ways of receiving the rabies virus than from the bite of a wild animal. Another less common way is when infected animal saliva comes is contact with a cut or a skin break on the body, since rabies is concentrated in the salivary glands.
The first symptoms of rabies, during the ‘prodomal phase’, are flu-like signs such as vomiting, loss of appetite, a fever, a headache, and itching and pain where the person was bitten. This is the reason people die from it. When they notice these simple signs, they assume that they’ll get better, but if not treated right away, you can only get worse. The second phase is called the ‘neurological phase’. During the neurological phase, worse symptoms show such as paralysis, hydrophobia (fear of water), confusion, hallucination, anxiety, and insomnia. Once these signs appear, it’s probably too late for you to receive the post exposure vaccine (the vaccine given to victims immediately after they are bitten). There have been vaccines made to help humans recover and be prevented from rabies, but what about the animals with the virus?’
If exposed to a possibly rabid animal, it is important to wash the wound thoroughly with soap and water, and seek medical attention immediately. It does not matter whether or not you think the animal really is rabid, the wound must be treated very promptly. A doctor will care for the wound and will assess the risk for rabies exposure. When you are bitten, it is important to know some important information such as the geographic location of the incident, the type of animal that was involved, and how the exposure occurred. This information will help doctor assess your risk. The post exposure vaccine can only be given by a medical practicenor, so that is why it is extremely important to seek medical attention after the exposure.
The pre exposure vaccination is a vaccination given to a person who does not have rabies. The vaccination, which is recommended for people who work around animals or whose activities bring them into constant contact with species that are at risk of having rabies, helps your immune system prepare for rabies as to better hold it off. Although this vaccination does not eliminate the need for additional medical attention after a rabies exposure, it makes therapy simpler by eliminating the need for HRIG (human rabies immune globulin). Also, the vaccine may enhance the immunity of people whose post exposure theraphy is delayed.
Post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) should begin as soon as possible after an exposure. If it is not given soon enough, the virus may already be too far into the CSU and it will be too late. It’s very dangerous to get bitten near the face. The closer a bite is to the face, the greater the risk is, since the virus then has a shorter distance to travel to get to the brain, but even then, the post exposure prophylaxis can help if given immediately after contact with the rabid animal.
Rabies is a quick and painful killer. It has to be taken care of extremely quickly or hope will be lost for the life of the one who has contracted the virus. This is not a virus to mess around with. The CSU is probably the thing that you need to protect most in your body, and this virus aims directly for it. Immediate medical attention is a must when dealing with the rabies virus. With today’s technology and medical knowledge, more lives are saved everyday from rabies, and many more deadly viruses.