All authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the manuscript. Hydrophobia of human rabies. Clin Case Rep.
National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Journal List Clin Case Rep v. Published online Oct Juliana R. Andriamandimby 3. Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer. Tongavelona, Email: moc. Corresponding author. In the U. Bats carrying rabies have been found in all 48 states that border with each other. Any mammal can harbor and transmit the virus, but smaller mammals, such as rodents, rarely become infected or transmit rabies.
Rabbits are unlikely to spread rabies. This is the time before symptoms appear. It usually lasts from 3 to 12 weeks, but it can take as little as 5 days or more than 2 years. By the time symptoms appear, rabies is usually fatal.
Anyone who may have been exposed to the virus should seek medical help at once, without waiting for symptoms. Early, flu-like symptoms, include :. If the person enters a coma, death will occur within a matter of hours, unless they are attached to a ventilator. Rarely, a person may recover at this late stage. Intense spasms in the throat are triggered when trying to swallow. Even the thought of swallowing water can cause spasms.
This is where the fear comes from. If the individual could swallow saliva easily, this would reduce the risk of spreading the virus to a new host. At the time of a bite, there is usually no way to tell for sure whether an animal is rabid, or whether it has passed on an infection. Lab tests may show antibodies , but these may not appear until later in the development of the disease.
The virus may be isolated from saliva or through a skin biopsy. However, by the time a diagnosis is confirmed, it may be too late to take action. For this reason, the patient will normally start a course of prophylactic treatment at once, without waiting for a confirmed diagnosis. If a person develops symptoms of viral encephalitis following an animal bite, they should be treated as if they may have rabies.
If a person is bitten or scratched by an animal that may have rabies, or if the animal licks an open wound, the individual should immediately wash any bites and scratches for 15 minutes with soapy water, povidone iodine, or detergent. This might minimize the number of viral particles. After exposure and before symptoms begin, a series of shots can prevent the virus from thriving. This is usually effective. Apparently, this virus is generally found in the saliva of animals that have been infected and spread through bites, scratches, or scratches that enter the human body.
Animals that are often caught by this virus include dogs, foxes, wolves, cats, bats and monkeys. One of the symptoms of Rabies in humans is that Rabies causes fear of water. In other words, people with Rabies are considered as a hydrophobic. What makes them fear of water exactly? One of Rabies severe symptoms is that Rabies causes fear of water. Hydrophobia in Rabies is caused by extreme pain in the patient when swallowing fluids, including water and saliva.
For that matter, rabies does not cause fear of water because fear of something which causes the body to feel pain is a natural thing to happen, including in Rabies sufferers. The rabies virus travels to the brain through nerves inside the brain , the virus reproduces, and then it travels back through the nerves to most parts of the body. Eventually, the virus reaches the salivary glands where it is released into the saliva in the mouth. By this time, the disease has usually damaged the brain, sometimes producing violent behaviour.
It eventually causes death. In people, the incubation period the time between initial contact with the virus and onset of the disease generally ranges from two to eight weeks. In rare cases, it can vary from 10 days to 2 years. The incubation period is shorter in children and in people exposed to a large dose of the rabies virus.
The dose of virus depends on the size, severity and location of an animal bite or scratch. In animals, the incubation period depends on the species of animal. For dogs it normally ranges between 14 and 60 days, but it can be much longer. The major risk of rabies comes from contact with the saliva, body fluids, or tissue of infected animals.
Animals that can be infected with rabies include all mammals, but in particular:. In Canada, rabies is also found in wolves, coyotes and other meat-eating animals.
It is rarely found in rodents such as mice, squirrels, chipmunks, groundhogs, rabbits, rats, hamsters, or gerbils, so their bites do not usually pose a risk for rabies. Since reporting began in , 25 people have died in Canada from rabies. The most recent death occurred in British Columbia in Because of prevention and control programs, there was a decline in cases of animal rabies from around Between and there were no reported cases of rabies in Canada.
Since then, a rise in the number of cases has been reported across Canada. The case in British Columbia occurred due to a bat bite. The greater Toronto and Hamilton area in southern Ontario has seen the largest outbreaks in a form of rabies commonly spread by raccoons.
Rabies carried by raccoons is also a concern in Quebec and New Brunswick. Rabies carried by Arctic red foxes and dogs is a concern in northern Canada. To cause an infection, the rabies virus must enter the body and reach nerve cells. The virus can enter the body through broken skin. Droplets containing the virus can pass through mucous membranes in the eyes, nose, mouth, or intestine. Usually, transmission occurs when rabid animals, with the virus in their saliva, bite people.
Farmers or veterinarians can become infected when they work with their hands in the mouths of rabid cows which often appear to be choking on food. Laboratory workers have also contracted rabies from cuts or sticks from contaminated needles, scalpels or other contaminated laboratory equipment. In unusual situations, workers have contracted rabies by breathing air that carried high concentrations of the virus. This phenomenon has occurred in bat caves. It has also happened in the laboratory where improper procedures produced a mist or aerosol containing the virus.
Contact with the blood, urine or manure of a rabid animal is not a risk factor for contracting rabies. The virus can become inactive, but the rate at this occurs depends on moisture, sunlight and temperature. The rabies virus is not infectious if it has dried out or exposed to sunlight.
Workers who may have been exposed to rabies must never wait until they develop signs of the disease. Once the signs appear, the disease is almost inevitably fatal within weeks of symptoms appearing, if not treated.
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