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Medical Author:

Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Dr. Charles "Pat" Davis, MD, PhD, is a board certified Emergency Medicine doctor who currently practices as a consultant and staff member for hospitals. He has a PhD in Microbiology (UT at Austin), and the MD (Univ. Texas Medical Branch, Galveston). He is a Clinical Professor (retired) in the Division of Emergency Medicine, UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, and has been the Chief of Emergency Medicine at UT Medical Branch and at UTHSCSA with over 250 publications.

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Medical Editor:

Mary D. Nettleman, MD, MS, MACP

Mary D. Nettleman, MD, MS, MACP

Mary D. Nettleman, MD, MS, MACP is the Chair of the Department of Medicine at Michigan State University. She is a graduate of Vanderbilt Medical School, and completed her residency in Internal Medicine and a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Indiana University.

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Medical Editor:

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, is a U.S. board-certified Anatomic Pathologist with subspecialty training in the fields of Experimental and Molecular Pathology. Dr. Stöppler's educational background includes a BA with Highest Distinction from the University of Virginia and an MD from the University of North Carolina. She completed residency training in Anatomic Pathology at Georgetown University followed by subspecialty fellowship training in molecular diagnostics and experimental pathology.

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In this Article

• Rabies facts
• What is rabies?
• What are rabies symptoms and signs in humans?
• What is the history of rabies, and what is the cause of rabies?
• How is rabies transmitted?
• How soon after an exposure should a person seek medical attention?
• How is a rabies infection diagnosed?
• What is the treatment for rabies in humans?
• Should people get a preexposure vaccination before traveling outside the U.S.?
• Can rabies be prevented?
• What is the prognosis for people with rabies?
• Rabies Index

Rabies is a disease caused by a virus that enters the body through the bite of infected animals and causes brain swelling and, if not quickly treated, results in convulsions, respiratory failure, and death in almost every person infected. Very rarely, rabies has been transmitted only by saliva droplets from an infected animal that contacts a skin break (abrasion or cut, not a bite) or in rabies research laboratory accidents. Aerosols of saliva droplets or bat guano may also rarely cause rabies.

Rabies is worldwide (except for Australia and New Zealand currently); developing countries have dogs as the most common source of bites that lead to rabies. However, many wild animals (especially foxes, skunks, raccoons, and bats) in both developed and developing countries can be infected with rabies virus so their bites (and saliva) can transmit the disease to other animals and humans. Most developed countries have animal vaccination programs that effectively reduce or eliminate the source of rabies in domestic animals (especially dogs and cats); some even have programs to reduce or eliminate the virus in wild animals. For example, vaccine materials are set out in the wild for coyotes to ingest to reduce or eliminate rabies in their population in Texas. Until recently, when rabies-infected bats were found in Scotland, all of England was rabies-free due to its vaccine program. Rabies is termed a zoonosis, which means a disease that is usually transmitted from animals to other animals and but can also be transmitted to humans. The terms rabies and rabies virus (Lyssavirus rabies) are currently interchanged in most of the medical literature although technically rabies is the disease process and rabies virus is the species of lyssavirus that causes the disease. However, the dual meaning is so pervasive in the medical and lay literature that rabies will be used in this article to mean both the disease and the viral cause of the disease.

About 55,000 deaths per year worldwide are due to rabies (World Health Organization statistics), and the majority of these deaths occur in children.