We all are familiar with the term rabies and it’s nothing new now. We have been hearing and studying about it for ages. Mostly the first thing that comes into our mind about it is dogs. However, they are not the only reason for the spread of it. Various other animals include bats, raccoons, and other wild animals.
Its Rabies Alert – Latest News!
However, it is not that common but is still a serious disease as it causes harm to the brain and nerves and if not treated well can lead to death. It spreads from animals to animals through biting and scratching. Raccoons are considered the primary carriers but bats are the main reason to spread it among humans.
Rabies affects the central nervous system causing inflammation in the brain of humans and animals. The main reason for being affected by rabies is through the saliva of infected animals or when infected saliva gets into an open wound of a human body. A few symptoms in the early stages such as Fatigue, Headaches, Fever Confusion, Seizures, Weakness to being severely affected Difficulty swallowing and increased production of saliva, Double vision, rabies can lead to death. However, to deal with rabies, vaccines were developed and were injected into humans to avoid being affected by this virus.
Infected dogs usually show a short excitation phase and after a few days they are unable to bite as the muscles of the throat are paralyzed and they die soon. The same can be seen in humans, muscles of the throat become paralyzed so that the person cannot swallow or drink leading to hydrophobia. The mental state of a person infected with rabies varies from excitement stage to dull stage and soon the person falls into a coma and usually dies in less than a week due to cardiac or respiratory failure. Generally, the incubation period is between one to three months.
According to some researchers, rabies is 100% fatal. Rabies is highly transmissible through mammals and hence the virus has a long incubation period that allows them to spread the disease. Rabies is of two types, furious rabies that results in aggressive individuals, and paralytic rabies which acts over the body slowly. There is no method to diagnose the presence of rabies infection in human beings before the onset of the symptoms as the virus is usually found only in brain tissue
Taking about rabies me of recent cases coming up from the Port Charlotte area. It was basically detected in a dead raccoon after it had a debacle with the dogs of a resident of the Port Charlotte area. Rabies cannot be detected in living animals and hence it is examined by taking the brain tissue of dead animals. As soon as the results came out, the government decided to take all the necessary steps required to prevent the spread of this virus. They’ve published guidelines and have declared a rabies alert in the area.
Rabies a vaccine-preventable disease is the most cost-effective strategy for preventing rabies in people. Rabies is however a dreaded disease as once affected is a mostly fatal disease. All warm-blooded animals, particularly mammals, can acquire rabies and 90 percent of exposures are due to rabid dogs. However, the affected animal’s good potential of not surviving an attack by a rabid animal.
We should thank our scientists for vaccinations and effective post-exposure treatment the number of human deaths from rabies has reduced drastically. Although wildlife officials have been vaccinating wildlife in many regions over the past few decades, one must take proper precautions and avoid such a fatal disease. Although being a fatal disease, very few people die from rabies nationwide each year.
