Do only dogs get rabies? This article gives you the answer!

Rabies is a deadly infectious disease, and dogs are the main source of transmission. It is necessary to pay attention to the prevention of rabies, but if you are afraid of dogs, have all kinds of taboos and fears about your own dogs, or even irresponsibly abandon your pets, it is an overreaction and makes no sense at all.

Dogs are good and loyal companions of human beings | Tuchong Creative

Dogs are good friends of humans. Compared with other animals, dogs are more humane. Nowadays, many families keep a puppy to accompany their family members. However, there are often many cases of vicious dogs injuring people in the news. After being bitten by a dog, people's first reaction is, "Oh no, I'm going to get rabies, right?" So, will "being bitten by a dog" definitely lead to rabies? Is rabies only contracted by dogs? Let's talk about it today.

01

The dog was given a bad name and was blamed for rabies alone

The rabies virus is the culprit of rabies. This invisible guy has a big appetite. Flying bats, running foxes and wolves, and the favored "cats"... almost all mammals are its "appetizers". Dogs are the closest to us. 95% of rabies in people is caused by dogs. Unfortunately, dogs are the "scapegoat" and become synonymous with rabies. When rabies occurs, the nervous system is damaged and spasms occur, which looks like the clinical manifestation of "fear of wind and water", so people in ancient times also called rabies "hydrophobia".

02

Will you definitely get rabies if you are bitten by a dog?

First, let's understand the pathogenic mechanism of rabies. The rabies virus is highly neurotropic and replicates in the bitten muscle tissue, then invades the external nervous system through the motor nerve endings and migrates along the nerve axons to the central nervous system, multiplying in the dorsal root ganglia, and then invades the spinal cord and the entire central nervous system. Proliferation in the central nervous system causes severe progressive encephalomyelitis, and the virus continues to spread to the peripheral nerves and is excreted into the saliva, and eventually often causes death due to respiratory and circulatory failure.

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How do you tell if your pet is infected with rabies? Sick dogs usually have abnormal emotions and behaviors , such as irritability, drooling, aggressiveness, and randomly biting living things. However, whether they are really infected with rabies still needs to be confirmed by a professional laboratory.

The incubation period of rabies refers to the asymptomatic period from infection to onset of symptoms, which is usually 1-3 months. Bites and scratches from dogs, cats and other animals infected with rabies are the most common routes of infection . Sick animals licking the mucous membranes of the mouth, eyes or unhealed wounds can also spread the virus. The saliva secreted by sick animals contains rabies virus. Once the integrity of our skin is destroyed by scratching or biting, or our wounds or mucous membranes are licked, the virus may pass through the exposed peripheral nerves and ascend to the central nervous system, causing illness and death.

That is to say, this infection process can only occur when broken human skin comes into direct contact with cats and dogs carrying rabies virus and two conditions are met at the same time. Therefore, "being bitten by a dog" is not a necessary and sufficient condition for contracting rabies. Only "contact with animals suspected of being infected with rabies" will there be a risk of exposure to rabies.

Contact with an animal suspected of being infected with rabies is a necessary and sufficient condition | Tuchong Creative

03

How to prevent rabies when living with cats and dogs

First of all, if you are bitten by a dog with a clear immune background, you can use the "ten-day observation method" . If the dog does not become ill or die within ten days, it means it does not have rabies and the dog owner is not in danger, so you can stop vaccinating. If the dog becomes ill and dies within ten days, you must complete the vaccination process.

Secondly, even if you are unfortunately exposed to rabies, as long as you follow the "three steps", seek medical treatment in time and standardize the immunization procedures, you can 100% prevent rabies.

① Rinse the wound immediately. Running water can remove viruses on the surface of the wound, and soap can kill surface viruses.

② Inject rabies immunoglobulin. In a bleeding wound, the virus may have entered the wound. By injecting rabies immunoglobulin around the wound, the virus inside the wound can also be cleared.

③ Vaccination. If we vaccinate in a timely and standardized manner, our bodies will produce antibodies that specifically kill viruses, giving us a "gold medal of immunity from death."

Getting the rabies vaccine gives us a "gold medal of immunity from death" | Tuchong Creative

Although the mortality rate after infection with rabies virus is 100%, the protection rate is also 100% if rabies exposure is discovered in time and treated properly.

Even so, for the health of yourself and others, the owner must do the following two things:

①Register your dog and vaccinate it against rabies as required. Your dog will then have a "magic power of protection" and you no longer have to worry about it "making friends carelessly" and going astray.

② Be a responsible dog owner. Protecting your own dog is also a way of being responsible to others and to society.

Raise dogs in a civilized manner, leash your dogs when walking them, and prevent them from disturbing others; do not abandon your pets, as stray dogs are the main source of rabies and can cause greater social harm.

Author: Li Hao, Associate Researcher, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention

Review | Yin Wenwu, Chief Physician, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention

This article is produced by the "Science Rumor Refutation Platform" (ID: Science_Facts). Please indicate the source when reprinting.

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