Rabbies

I’m sorry, John, but you are very wrong. It is not a disease to take lightly. It does kill people! Without treatment, people will die!

If you are bitten by a cat that has NOT had a Rabies shot…the cat needs to be quarantined for 10 days. Rabies WILL kill humans if treatment isn’t started soon after the bite. I was given 3 days to find the cat that bit me or I would have had to start the series of Rabies shots for humans.

Rabies is a disease humans may get from being bitten by an animal infected with the rabies virus. Rabies has been recognized for over 4,000 years. Yet, despite great advances in diagnosing and preventing it, today rabies is almost always deadly in humans who contract it and do not receive treatment.

Rabies can be totally prevented. You must recognize the exposure and promptly get appropriate medical care before you develop the symptoms of rabies.

Where rabies is found: Human rabies is quite rare in the United States. Only 27 cases have been reported in people in the United States since 1990. Yet in some areas of the world (for example, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America), human rabies is much more common. The incidence of rabies in people parallels the incidence in the animal kingdom. The great strides that have been made in controlling the disease in animals in the United States and in other developed countries is directly responsible for this decline in human rabies.

Although rabies in humans is very 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 regions of the country have more cases of rabies than others do.

Rabies in wildlife accounts for greater than 85% of animal rabies in the United States.

Animals that carry 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, accounting for 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 with rabies in the United States. Dogs are the most common domestic rabid animals worldwide.

Almost any wild or domestic animal can potentially get 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 areas of the United States.

Source Link: http://www.emedicinehealth.com/rabies/article_em.htm

Mass Treatment of Humans Exposed to Rabies — New Hampshire, 1994
On October 22, 1994, the laboratory of the New Hampshire Division of Public Health Services (NHDPHS) diagnosed rabies in a kitten that had been purchased from a pet store in Concord, New Hampshire. On October 19, the animal had developed seizures, then died of unknown causes during the night of October 20-21. Approximately 665 persons received rabies postexposure prophylaxis because of exposure to this kitten and other cats from the same pet store. This report summarizes the epidemiologic investigation of the source of the infection and follow-up care of humans and animals potentially exposed to rabies.

Because the pet store did not keep records for kittens acquired for sale, the kitten’s origin and date of arrival were unknown. However, on September 26, a group of kittens reported to have included the rabid kitten was examined by a veterinarian and given health certificates, in accordance with state law, before being offered for sale by the pet store. The kitten was sold on October 5 and kept by its owners until its death. On October 22, rabies was diagnosed in the kitten by fluorescent antibody testing at the NHDPHS laboratory. At CDC, genetic typing of the rabies virus isolated from the kitten indicated that it was a variant associated with raccoons. The investigation could not determine whether the kitten was infected with rabies before, during, or after its stay in the pet store; two other kittens sold by the pet store during the same period as the infected kitten died of unknown causes at their new homes but were unavailable for testing for rabies.

On October 12, a raccoon captured in Henniker (a suburb of Concord), where the kitten was suspected to have originated, tested positive for rabies. Subsequent investigation indicated that the raccoon may have had direct contact with three feral kittens acquired by the pet store on September 20. All three feral kittens developed signs of respiratory illness and died during approximately October 4-October 6 — a period overlapping that during which the rabid kitten was in the store. None of these three kittens were available for testing for rabies and all were younger than the minimum age (3 months) recommended for rabies vaccination.

From September 19 through October 23 (the last date any potentially exposed kittens were in the pet store), a minimum of 34 kittens had been offered for sale by the store. In addition to the infected kitten, 33 other kittens were included in the investigation: 27 were located and tested negative for rabies, and five died of unknown causes but were unavailable for testing (including the three feral kittens); one kitten was quarantined at the owner’s request, and its status is unknown.

Because of limitations in the store’s records regarding the origins and sale destinations of the kittens, local news media assisted in alerting community residents about the potential exposures to rabies at the store. The kittens had been allowed to roam freely throughout the store, which was frequented by children from child-care centers and a nearby school. As a result, NHDPHS and two major health-care facilities screened approximately 1000 persons who responded to media alerts and referred to private sector health-care providers for definitive evaluation of those persons who might need rabies postexposure treatment. NHDPHS gave medical providers an algorithm to determine the necessity for recommending rabies postexposure treatment. Rabies postexposure treatment, consisting of one dose of rabies immune globulin and five doses of rabies vaccine, was initiated for approximately 665 persons (1). Reported by: M Klauber, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Concord; C McGinnis, DVM, New Hampshire Dept of Agriculture; RT DiPentima, MPH, AE Burns, MS, VC Malmberg, MS, JS Finnigan, MJ Walsh, JE Whitcomb, CE Danielson, MD, MG Smith, MD, State Epidemiologist, Div of Public Health Svcs, New Hampshire Dept of Health and Human Svcs. Viral and Rickettsial Zoonoses Br, Div of Viral and Rickettsial Diseases, National Center for Infectious Diseases, CDC.

Source Link: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00038110.htm

Read the story about the one-of-a-kind young girl who did in fact survive Rabies without treatment. She had to learn to walk, talk and function again!

The other five people known to have survived it after symptoms appeared either were vaccinated in advance or received vaccine soon afterward. All but one ended up with persistent movement difficulties.

In a desperate attempt to save her, Wisconsin doctors intentionally put her in a coma and gave her a slew of antiviral drugs and other medications to prevent a cascade of events that causes nerve cells to die. She spent two months in intensive care before returning home on New Year’s Day, 2005.

A tutor helped Giese finish her sophomore year of high school so she could rejoin her classmates in the fall. Physical therapy helped her overcome speech problems, weakness in her left hand and foot, and abnormal movements in her arms and hands.

She still has slight difficulty enunciating words, awkwardness using her left hand and trouble lifting her left foot so that she looks a bit uncoordinated when she runs.

Check out the complete story about her.

Source Link: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-08-29-rabies-survivor_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

Without treatment, you may very well die. Rabies is nothing to cough at. (Ahh! Bad medical joke!!)

Rabies is serious, even though lots of people make cracks about getting bit by squirrels and having rabies and all that. You CAN die.

You wouldn’t die but you would probably get seriously sick. I recommend that if you are bitten by a cat you aren’t sure it has rabies or not, I would go to the vet.

Comments to Answer

2

what are you talking about you will die

By: kazuha   28

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