Rabies is one of the most serious infectious diseases that has a viral nature. There is a pathology with serious consequences for the nervous system and in most cases leads to the death of the patient. An animal may bite the appearance of this infection. But which of our smaller brothers can be the culprits of such a serious disease as rabies? How many days does a person have an incubation period ? Let's try to figure it out.
Animals - carriers of rabies virus
To date, two types of rabies are shared: natural and urban. The first is transmitted through wild animals - bats, foxes, wolves, jackals.
And with the second, pets are considered carriers, but rabies is most often transmitted through the bite of an infected dog. How long does the incubation period for rabies in humans last ? How to recognize that an animal is infected with this virus?
Rabies in an animal: how to recognize?
The danger of infected animals is that the first signs of the disease in them can begin to appear only after a couple of months.
If we talk about rabies, the incubation period in humans is one, and in an animal it depends on age and weight and can range from 7 days to a year. You can determine this disease in animals by the following signs:
- Inappropriate behavior. Wild animals can lose their sense of caution and get close to domestic animals and people. And pets with rabies change their behavior - they become more affectionate, lazy and sleepy.
- Appetite is changing. An animal infected with rabies can eat inedible food such as land.
- Profuse salivation and vomiting. These symptoms of rabies can occur in an animal very often. The process of swallowing is disturbed, the animals choke with food.
- Coordination is broken. The animal often staggers when walking.
- Aggression. This symptom may appear one of the last, and, as a rule, after a couple of days the animal dies.
But what is the incubation period of rabies in humans after infection? What triggers the disease?
Causes of rabies
The causative agent of the disease is the Neuroiyctes rabid virus. A person becomes infected from the saliva of a sick animal that enters a wound during a bite. The virus is transmitted through saliva. The most dangerous for a person are bites in the head and hand.
After entering the wound, the virus spreads very quickly across all nerve trunks and reaches the central nervous system, and after penetrating the periphery it affects the entire nervous system. Propagating, the pathogen causes serious changes: hemorrhages, swelling, changes in nerve cells.
With the accelerated development of the symptoms of the disease, a person dies very quickly, only an instant response and the introduction of a vaccine in the first hours after a bite give a chance for survival. But how is rabies clinically manifested? In humans, how long can the incubation period last?
Rabies: clinical manifestations
In our age of technology, a vaccine has long been created, thanks to which the patient can quickly get rid of rabies infection, and clinical signs in this case are rare. But the disease can still occur, and several factors can provoke it:
- A long lack of qualified medical care.
- Vaccination disorders.
- Self-completed vaccination period before the appointed time.
Most often, ignorance of what needs to be done immediately after the bite of the animal leads to the death of the patient, and neglect of his health. Most people simply do not pay attention to the bite - the wound was treated, well, well. They do not even suspect that an ordinary shallow wound (at first glance) can cause a deadly disease, from which it will be impossible to recover from a couple of days.
A disease such as rabies (the incubation period in humans can have a different duration depending on the location of the bite) is very dangerous, and only going to the doctor immediately after the attack of the animal and vaccination can save him from death. But what signs should still make a person sound the alarm?
The first manifestations of rabies in humans
After the incubation period is over, and the virus has already multiplied sufficiently in the body, you can notice the first manifestations of the disease. The following symptoms are characteristic of it:
- The patient is very worried about the wound. The bite site hurts, pulls, itches, and if a scar has already appeared, then it most often swells and becomes inflamed.
- Body temperature rises and keeps at the level of 37 degrees.
- Severe headache, general weakness, nausea, and even vomiting appear.
- If the wound is in the face, then hallucinations may occur.
- Depression, anxiety, and maybe even irritability appear.
But it is worth remembering that there are several stages of rabies, and the symptoms of each of them are very different.
Incubation period
Necessarily has a rabies incubation period in humans. Symptoms at this time are not yet manifested. This stage proceeds without signs. It can last up to three months, although there have been cases when the incubation period in humans has dragged on for many years, but most often it is still no more than 12 months. Most patients, because of the length of their sentences, sometimes cannot even remember who and when they bit them.
If the victim was bitten in the head or neck, then the person does not immediately exhibit rabies symptoms: the incubation period can be a little more than a month and a half. A man bitten in his hand may not suspect anything was wrong much longer. And the further course of the disease can be divided into several main stages.
The main stages of rabies
After the virus enters the human body, if we talk about rabies, the incubation period in humans begins. The stages of the disease are different, they can rapidly replace each other and differ in their symptoms:
1. The prodromal period. At this time, the rabies virus enters the central nervous system. This stage lasts from 2 to 10 days. At this time, the first signs of the virus appear: itching, soreness at the site of the bite. These symptoms can be observed first, but there are others:
- general malaise;
- sudden weight loss;
- headache;
- fever;
- nausea;
- bowel disorder;
- sense of anxiety;
- insomnia;
- depression.
2. The stage of excitation. During her illness already affects the entire central nervous system. Manifestation of rabies is very pronounced at this time in a person. The incubation period is long over, and all the signs of a deadly disease are evident. Among the symptoms, seizures are very pronounced, the patient may die as soon as this stage of the disease begins, or its manifestations will lead to death.
Wild and paralytic rabies often develop during the second stage of the disease. During this period, patients rapidly develop hyperactivity, a sense of anxiety, hallucinations. After a day, all these symptoms will be accompanied by outbreaks of extreme anxiety. Patients become so aggressive that they start rushing at people, tearing their clothes on and banging their heads against the wall. Some may experience convulsions (quite intense), and at one “fine” moment such an attack ends in paralysis.
3. Stage paralysis. The movements of the tongue and eye muscles are paralyzed, the temperature rises to 40 degrees, the pressure drops, and the heart begins to contract faster. The duration of this stage is different in all patients, but usually ends in death on the background of damage to the cardiovascular and respiratory centers.
4. Death. It is very important to accurately determine when the brain of a person with rabies died. This can be done using a biopsy or determining the absence of blood flow. Very often, many people mistake some neurological symptoms for brain death.
Diagnosis of human rabies
This is another important issue that should be discussed under the theme "Rabies: the incubation period in humans."
Diagnostics should be carried out as quickly as possible. First of all, it is determined when a person was bitten, whether the saliva of the animal got into the wound. Clinical manifestations are generally uniform in all. In the blood, the number of lymphocytes increases, but eosinophils are absent. A smear smear taken from the surface of the cornea indicates the presence of antigen produced by an infection that has entered the human body.
Rabies treatment
If the patient has the first signs of rabies, he is placed in the infectious ward. Therapy is carried out to alleviate the symptoms, while supporting treatment is additionally used. Pain killers, anticonvulsants are prescribed, if necessary, sleeping pills, parenteral nutrition is used, as well as drugs that can be used to relieve all the symptoms of rabies.
The most effective treatment for this pathology has not yet been invented. The only thing that can protect and prevent the development of such an unpleasant scenario as rabies, the incubation period in people, postexposure vaccine. This is the best method of prevention.
Disease prevention
Only vaccination will protect a person from rabies virus. A preventive vaccination course is mandatory for those who are directly associated with the risk of infection by the nature of their activities.
All animals that have bitten a person or behave too aggressively must be urgently taken to a veterinarian to be examined and sent to the quarantine zone for 10 days. If during this time the animal has not died, it is likely that it is not rabies. The incubation period in humans, (prevention very important!) differs in duration from that in animals, so you can make a mistake and make a diagnosis.
If suddenly the animal has bitten a person, then it is necessary to treat the wound. The bite area is cleaned with a soapy 20% solution. If the wound is too deep, then in this case, the rinse is done with a catheter so that the stream of water gets as deep as possible inside. In no case should you stitch or burn it.
In which cases do not need to be vaccinated?
Urgent vaccine is administered to a person in the presence of such symptoms:
- Bites, scratches, saliva on an open wound or mucous membranes from animals that are infected with rabies virus.
- Injury by objects on which saliva or the brain of an infected animal may be present.
- Bites through clothing or in cases where it has been damaged by the animal’s teeth.
- If the bite animal died within a few days after the bite.
- Stings of wild animals.
- Damage to the skin of a person infected with rabies virus.
So, back to the issue of injections, it’s not enough just to know how rabies and the incubation period in humans manifest themselves.
The postexposure vaccine is administered immediately in the hospital or on an outpatient basis. A person may not be vaccinated if he was bitten by a pet, the bite was not applied to the neck, face or hands, if this was once. When a dangerous place is injured, three vaccinations are given to the victim. This is necessary even if the bite was applied by a pet, since it can be a carrier of the rabies virus, and a person will have an ailment, but not an animal.
Any animal that has bitten a person must be monitored for 10, or even 14 days, and if the first signs of rabies appear, immediately seek vaccination.
Conclusion
As it became clear from the above, it is better to be vaccinated against rabies than to allow the development of the disease, because the first symptoms can not immediately appear, and the further development of the infection can lead to serious consequences. Today we have not yet invented a tool that would completely cure rabies. Treatment is carried out only with drugs that alleviate the symptoms and remove them. If you do not have time to get the vaccine in time, then rabies in most cases leads to death.