Early Symptoms of Rabies in Humans
Rabies is a preventable viral disease that attacks the central nervous system of humans and other warm-blooded mammals. Tragically, rabies is not curable once symptoms start occurring, and death typically occurs within days after these first symptoms appear. Fortunately, rabies can be prevented, and the disease is also treatable if individuals promptly receive vaccine injections following exposure. Bites from infected wild animals are the most common mode of rabies transmission in the United States, while domestic dogs remain the leading carrier of the disease in other parts of the world.
Symptoms
All animal bites pose a potential risk for rabies, thus medical treatment should be sought immediately. Once in the body, the rabies virus multiplies as its travels through the nervous system, eventually leading to a fatal inflammation of the brain. Early symptoms of rabies such as coughing, fatigue, fever, headaches and a sore throat usually emerge weeks after a person is infected.
Significance
Rabies cases have been reported in every state except Hawaii. The disease also is found in many other nations around the world. While human cases of rabies are rare, more than $300 million is spent annually in the United States on detection, prevention and control of rabies. In the U.S., about 40,000 people receive rabies vaccine injections every year after being bitten by animals.
History
Almost every case of rabies was fatal until Louis Pasteur and Emile Roux developed the first vaccine for the disease in 1885. The number of rabies-related human deaths in the U.S. has dropped from more than 100 annually at the turn of the century to the current figure of one or two per year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Before 1960, the majority of animals infected with rabies in the United States were domestic animals. Today more than 90 percent of cases involve wild animals like bats, foxes, raccoons and skunks.
