Rabies is a typical zoonotic disease which has been known for more than years. To date, no effective medical therapy has been established for overt rabies. The rabies post-exposure prophylaxis PEP , which is a serial vaccination against rabies starting as soon as possible after the patient was bitten by a suspected rabid animal, is the only way to prevent death. Though a small number of people have survived rabies, the disease usually causes death. For that reason, if you think you've been exposed to rabies, you must get a series of shots to prevent the infection from taking hold.
If you've been bitten by an animal that is known to have rabies, you'll receive a series of shots to prevent the rabies virus from infecting you. If the animal that bit you can't be found, it may be safest to assume that the animal has rabies. But this will depend on several factors, such as the type of animal and the situation in which the bite occurred.
In some cases, it's possible to determine whether the animal that bit you has rabies before beginning the series of rabies shots. That way, if it's determined the animal is healthy, you won't need the shots. Pets and farm animals. Cats, dogs and ferrets that bite can be observed for 10 days to see if they show signs and symptoms of rabies. If the animal that bit you remains healthy during the observation period, then it doesn't have rabies and you won't need rabies shots.
Other pets and farm animals are considered on a case-by-case basis. Talk to your doctor and local public health officials to determine whether you should receive rabies shots.
If an animal bites you, seek medical attention for the wound. Also tell the doctor about the circumstances of your injury. The doctor will ask:. Wash your wound gently and thoroughly with soap and generous amounts of water.
The procedure that showed so much promise, with overwhelming success on the first attempt unfortunately did not live up to expectations. The Protocol has been tried over 50 times around the world, but only a handful of patients have survived, meaning this treatment is not recommended and remains highly controversial.
So why is rabies so difficult to treat? Viral infections can usually be treated using anti-viral drugs, which inhibit virus development. Rabies virus uses a myriad of strategies to avoid the immune system and hide from antiviral drugs, even using the blood brain barrier to protect itself once it has entered the brain.
The blood brain barrier is a membrane that prevents cells and large molecules from entering the brain. During infection of the brain, the permeability of the barrier can increase, allowing immune cells and antibodies through to help clear the infection.
However, during infection with rabies virus, the blood brain barrier locks down, meaning nothing can get through, even antiviral drugs.
The virus goes even further to continue infection and manipulates the immune system to destroy itself instead of targeting infected nerve cells. This manipulation of host responses has made finding strategies to treat rabies following infection difficult for researchers, with many potential antivirals showing promising results in in vitro, laboratory tests being unsuccessful in more complex, in vivo systems.
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