Recently, reports of a middle school girl suffering brain death after skipping rabies vaccinations trended on social media, reigniting public concern about rabies. Note: Rabies is a viral disease with nearly 100% fatality rate. Yet this deadly illness is entirely preventable through rabies vaccination.Today, doctors from the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the 120 Beijing Emergency Center will explain how to combat this preventable yet incurable disease.
The dangers of rabies should not be underestimated.
Rabies is a zoonotic infectious disease caused by infection with the rabies virus.The rabies virus primarily enters the human body through broken skin or mucous membranes. Clinical manifestations typically include specific fear of wind and water, pharyngeal muscle spasms, and progressive paralysis. In recent years, rabies has consistently ranked among the leading causes of death among China's legally reported infectious diseases.Rabies is an infectious disease with a nearly 100% fatality rate. Globally, over 59,000 people die from rabies annually. China currently ranks among the countries with the most severe rabies epidemics, claiming hundreds of lives each year.
Prominent clinical manifestations in human rabies include extreme fear, hydrophobia, aerophobia, and paroxysmal pharyngeal spasms.Patients may experience severe throat spasms upon seeing water, hearing running water, drinking water, or even hearing the word "water." Despite intense thirst, they dare not drink, and even if they do, they cannot swallow. This is why rabies is also known as "hydrophobia."
Is rabies only transmitted by dogs? No.According to the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Beijing 120 Emergency Center, 99% of human rabies cases are transmitted from infected dogs. While nearly all mammals are susceptible to the rabies virus, not all pose the same risk of transmission to humans. Data indicates that only reservoir hosts of the rabies virus contribute to human rabies outbreaks.The primary reservoir hosts for rabies are animals belonging to the Canidae, Felidae, and Chiroptera orders, including: dogs, foxes, wolves, dholes, ferrets, raccoon dogs, skunks, raccoons, mongooses, cats, and bats. Birds, fish, insects, lizards, turtles, and snakes cannot contract or transmit the rabies virus.
First Aid for Bite Injuries
Rabies remains the only acute infectious disease with a 100% fatality rate in humans. Its incubation period typically ranges from 1 to 3 months, though it can be as short as less than a week or as long as a year, depending on the bite location and viral load. Therefore, seeking immediate medical attention after a bite is crucial.Rabies is a disease that can only be diagnosed after symptoms appear, by which time the central nervous system has already suffered severe damage, rendering subsequent treatment largely ineffective. However, rabies is a preventable disease, primarily through vaccination.
What should you do if accidentally bitten by a small animal? Doctors from the Beijing 120 Emergency Center emphasize that thorough wound management is crucial for preventing rabies and avoiding secondary bacterial infections.Below is a three-step first-aid protocol for bite injuries:
Thoroughly cleanse the wound. After a rabies bite, immediately rinse each wound alternately with 20% soap solution or 0.1% benzalkonium bromide using running water under moderate pressure for 15 minutes to remove residual virus.This step is equally important as vaccination and passive immunization and must not be overlooked. After disinfection and rinsing, apply 75% ethanol or 2%-3% iodine tincture. Do not bandage or suture the wound.
Surgical Management: At least two hours after wound cleansing, disinfection, and administration of rabies passive immunotherapy (as needed), proceed with subsequent surgical management as indicated. For severe or complex animal bites involving multiple clinical departments (e.g., orthopedics, otolaryngology, ophthalmology), management should ideally be performed by specialists or with specialist assistance.
The Beijing Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention reminds citizens: Do not take chances after an animal injury. Seek immediate wound care and vaccination at a Beijing Municipal Health Commission-designated rabies vaccination clinic. Those with severe injuries should also receive human rabies immunoglobulin alongside the vaccine.There are two vaccination schedules: Schedule 1: One dose on Day 0 (vaccination day), followed by doses on Days 3, 7, 14, and 28. Schedule 2: Two doses on Day 0, followed by a single dose on Day 7 and another on Day 21.
Do I need rabies vaccination if licked by a small animal?
Rabies virus enters the human body through bites or scratches from infected animals, or when mucous membranes or broken skin comes into contact with the saliva or tissues of infected animals, leading to infection. So, if licked by an animal, do I need rabies vaccination?The following situations do not warrant excessive concern: Contact with or feeding animals; Licking on intact skin; Contact with animal secretions or excretions on intact skin. Medical intervention is unnecessary in these cases; simply wash the affected area. How to determine if skin is intact? Here's a handy tip: Wipe the skin with alcohol. If you feel no pain, the skin is intact; if you do feel pain, be cautious.
Now pay attention! Seek immediate medical attention for these situations:
Light bites or minor scratches without bleeding on exposed skin. Treat the wound immediately and get vaccinated. Bites or scratches that penetrate the skin in one or multiple areas. Licking of mucous membranes or broken skin. Injuries to the head or face. Contact with bats.In these cases, immediately treat the wound, administer rabies passive immunoglobulin (rabies immune globulin), and receive the rabies vaccine. Don't worry—rabies vaccination has no contraindications. Can pregnant women or those with chronic illnesses receive the rabies vaccine? Rest assured, the rabies vaccine is currently the only vaccine with no contraindications. Vaccination is safe for pregnant women and poses no risk to the fetus.Rabies is a fatal disease. Following a bite injury, there are no contraindications for rabies vaccine use. However, a thorough medical history should be obtained before vaccination (e.g., history of severe allergies, other serious illnesses). Even if conditions exist that might make vaccination inadvisable, the vaccine should still be administered under close medical supervision. If the recipient has a documented allergy to a specific component of a vaccine brand, switch to a vaccine brand without that component.
Furthermore, the full course of rabies vaccinations must be completed on schedule without delays or early administration. Adherence to the prescribed vaccination protocol is critical for developing immunity against rabies. If a dose is delayed by one or several days, subsequent doses should be administered according to the original schedule's adjusted intervals.