How can you get rabies?

People can only be infected with rabies when bitten or scratched by animals, but not all bites or scratches by animals will cause rabies, because some animals are domestic animals that have been vaccinated for a long time and will not have viruses in their bodies. Therefore, you still need to go to the hospital for an examination after being scratched.

What are the sources of infection of rabies? There are two sources of infection of rabies. 1. Animals with rabies and people with rabies All warm-blooded animals can be infected with rabies, but the degree of sensitivity varies. Mammals are the most sensitive. In nature, rabies has been seen in domestic dogs, wild dogs, cats, wolves, foxes, jackals, badgers, pigs, cattle, sheep, horses, camels, bears, deer, elephants, hares, squirrels, weasels, bats and other animals. All cold-blooded animals such as fish, frogs, turtles, etc. can resist infection with rabies virus. The virus can be isolated in the saliva of people suffering from rabies. Although the virus can be transmitted from person to person in theory, cases of human-to-human transmission are rare. There have been only six cases of human-to-human infection caused by organ transplantation in the world. Apart from these, there is no conclusive evidence of any case of human-to-human infection. Therefore, people are not easily affected by each other.

2. "Healthy" dogs and animals with rabies virus The World Health Organization and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention have acknowledged that healthy animals do not carry the virus, and it is even more impossible for the animal to bite a person without dying while the person does. These have been proven to have no scientific basis. If the dog is not sick or will be sick within 10 days, there is no virus in its saliva and it cannot infect you.

Why are dogs the main source of rabies? Because people all over the world have the habit of keeping dogs, and among animals, dogs have the closest contact with humans. In addition, dogs are highly mobile and have the tendency to bite people, so they have become a major link in the spread of rabies. According to statistics, the proportion of people who develop rabies after being bitten by various animals is: 80.07% from dog bites, 9.25% from cat bites, 0.64% from wolf bites, 0.03% from fox bites, and 0.64% from farm livestock bites. Among them, dogs account for the highest proportion and are most susceptible to rabies. Therefore, dogs are the main source of infection.

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