Rabies is a viral infection of the brain that causes irritation and inflammation of the brain and spinal cord.
Rabies is transmitted by the bite of an animal infected with the disease virus because it is present in the saliva of infected animals and, although extremely rare, rabies can also be contracted by breathing infected air.
- Although dogs are often the source of infection.
- Cats.
- Bats.
- Raccoons.
- Skunks.
- Foxes and other animals may also be responsible for the transmission of rabies.
In most cases, rabies symptoms begin with a brief period of mental depression, restlessness, discomfort and fever, but in some cases rabies begins with a paralysis of the lower limbs that spreads throughout the body.
The agitation increases to uncontrollable arousal and the individual produces a lot of saliva.Spasms of the throat muscles and vocal pathways can be extremely painful.
Symptoms usually begin 30 to 50 days after infection, but the incubation period varies from 10 days to more than a year.The incubation period is generally shorter in people who have been bitten on the head or trunk or who have suffered numerous bites.
Immediate treatment of a wound caused by an animal bite is the best preventive measure, the contaminated area should be thoroughly cleaned with soap, even if the person has already been vaccinated, and the risk of getting rabies is lower, as there is no specific treatment for rabies.
The best way to protect yourself from rabies is to avoid animal bites, but most importantly, all animals are vaccinated against rabies during vaccination campaigns proposed by the Brazilian government.
Vaccination provides some degree of permanent protection for most people, but antibody concentrations decrease over time and people at high risk of new exposures should receive a booster vaccine every 2 years, but after the onset of symptoms, no vaccine or immunoglobulin against rabies seems to have any effect.Effect.
When a person is bitten by an animal and has symptoms of encephalitis, which is a progressive inflammation of the brain, the likely cause is rabies.A skin biopsy can reveal the virus.