How is rabies virus transmitted?

Speaking of rabies, everyone knows that this is a relatively stubborn disease, and once it occurs, there is no good way to treat it. So how is the rabies virus transmitted? I know that if you are scratched or bitten by a dog or cat, you should get vaccinated in time to prevent rabies. The rabies virus is transmitted through bites, scratches, and licking of the mucous membranes by the animal, which then enters the wound and causes infection.

1. How rabies is transmitted

1. Infection caused by bites or scratches on the skin or licking of mucous membranes by dogs or other animals. Rabies virus invades the nerves through wounds and mucous membranes and causes disease. This is the main mode of infection.

2. Infection caused by accidentally pricking the hands during slaughtering or skinning.

3. Infection through the digestive tract. Animals that died of rabies are buried underground and frozen in the winter. They are then dug out by wild dogs or other animals, which eat their meat and infect them with rabies.

2. What is rabies

The virus in the salivary glands of sick animals invades the human body through bites and scratches on human mucosa and skin, proliferates in local muscle cells, and ascends to the central nervous system with the blood flow. After the nerve cells proliferate, they can reach the salivary glands and other tissues. The incubation period varies depending on the site and severity of the bite, with reports of up to thirty years and generally one to three months. At the beginning of the disease, there is a feeling of ants crawling on the wound, followed by symptoms such as headache, tearing, drooling, nausea, and vomiting. It shows increased nervous excitement and spasm of the larynx when swallowing. It is more severe when exposed to wind and water, so it is called hydrophobia.

3. The incubation period of rabies

The incubation period varies in length, but most cases are less than three months, with the domestic average reported to be 66.9 days. The incubation period of 4-10% of patients exceeds half a year, and 1% exceeds one year. The longest case in the literature was 6 years. The length of the incubation period is related to factors such as age (shorter in children), wound location (bites on the head and face occur earlier, with an average of 39 days, while bites on the lower limbs have an average incubation period of 90 days), wound depth (deeper wounds have shorter incubation periods), the number and virulence of invading viruses (more virulent wounds have shorter incubation periods), and other factors. Other factors such as incomplete wound expansion, trauma, cold, and excessive fatigue may cause the disease to occur prematurely.

4. What to do if you are bitten or scratched by a dog

If you are bitten or scratched by a dog or other animal with rabies or an unknown condition, you should get a rabies vaccine in time. In serious cases, you should also get an injection of rabies immunoglobulin or antiviral serum to avoid infection.