Symptoms of rabies

When it comes to rabies, I believe many friends are familiar with it. In fact, rabies is mainly caused and formed by bites from carnivorous animals such as dogs, wolves, and even some cats. The clinical manifestations and symptoms of rabies are relatively obvious and prominent. In addition to low fever and even loss of appetite in the early stages, there are also symptoms and manifestations such as hydrophobia. So what are the symptoms of rabies?

In fact, the symptoms of rabies are more complicated and are divided into three stages. In the early stages, there are symptoms similar to colds and fever, but in the middle and late stages, the condition has gradually become more serious, and the patient is even extremely sensitive to the sound of water, light, etc. Below we will give you a detailed introduction to the symptoms of rabies.

What are the symptoms of rabies?

The three typical phobias of rabies patients are fear of wind, fear of water, and fear of light. Clinical manifestations can be divided into two types: encephalitis type (manic type) and paralysis type (quiet type). The lesions of furious rabies are mainly in the brainstem, cervical nerves or higher parts of the central nervous system, while the lesions of paralytic rabies are limited to the spinal cord and medulla oblongata, thus causing the difference in clinical symptoms. Both can be divided into the following three phases:

1. Prodromal phase: The prodromal phases of both types are similar. Before the excited state appears, most patients have low fever, drowsiness, lack of appetite, and a few have nausea, vomiting, headache, back pain, general discomfort, etc.; they begin to be sensitive to pain, sound, light, wind and other stimuli, and have a tightening feeling in the throat.

2. Excitement phase or spasm phase: It can be divided into two types, and the manifestations of the two types are different.

1. Manic rabies: the most common in China, accounting for about 2/3 abroad. The patient gradually enters a state of high excitement, with prominent manifestations of extreme terror and a sense of foreboding of impending disaster. He is also very sensitive to stimuli such as the sound of water, light, and wind, causing paroxysmal pharyngeal muscle spasms, difficulty breathing, etc.

2. Paralytic rabies: Clinically, there is no excitement period, no hydrophobia and dysphagia, but it starts with high fever, headache, vomiting, and pain at the bite site, followed by limb weakness, abdominal distension, ataxia, partial or complete muscle paralysis, urinary retention or incontinence, etc., showing symptoms of transverse myelitis or ascending spinal cord paralysis.

3. Coma or paralysis period: The paralysis type usually lasts about 13 days. The two types of rabies are difficult to distinguish. The convulsion stops and the patient becomes temporarily quiet, sometimes still able to drink water and swallow food with difficulty. The reaction weakens or disappears, and the patient turns into flaccid paralysis, among which limb flaccid paralysis is the most common.

What are the symptoms of rabies? In fact, in the early stage of the disease, the patient's main symptoms include low fever, drowsiness, even nausea, back pain, etc. In the middle stage, the patient is already in a highly excited state and is very sensitive to light, wind, water, etc. In addition, in the later stage, coma or even limb paralysis may occur. Therefore, after being bitten by an animal, it is necessary to treat the wound in time and get a rabies vaccine, which can greatly control the disease.