Rabies is an illness you get from an infection with the RABV virus. It causes symptoms like seizures, hallucinations and paralysis. The most common way to get rabies is through bat bites (in the U.S.) or dog bites (in Asia and Africa). Rabies is preventable if you’re vaccinated quickly after exposure. Once symptoms start, rabies is fatal.
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Rabies virus (RABV) is transmitted through direct contact (such as through broken skin or mucous membranes in your eyes, nose, or mouth) with saliva or brain/nervous system tissue from an infected animal. Rabies is fatal but preventable. It can spread to people and pets if they are bitten or scratched by a rabid animal.
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Rabies virus gets into your body when the saliva (spit) of an infected animal gets into an open wound (usually from a bite). It moves very slowly along nerves into your central nervous system (your brain and spinal cord). When it reaches your brain, the damage causes neurological symptoms. From there, rabies leads to coma and death.
About 59,000 people around the world die each year from rabies. In the U.S., human rabies cases are rare — fewer than three people get rabies each year. This is thanks to many people getting vaccinated soon after exposure.
Rabies is most common in rural parts of Asia and Africa, though it’s found on all continents except Antarctica. In the U.S., rabies is commonly found in wild animals. But dogs carry rabies in many other countries. Children are more likely to get rabies than adults.
Rabies moves from an infected wound to your brain over time. There are several phases that most people go through: incubation, prodromal phase, acute neurologic phase and coma.
Rabies virus can spend days to weeks in your body before it gets into your nervous system (incubation). You don’t have any symptoms during this time. If you receive treatment early in the incubation period, you won’t get rabies.
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RABV travels through your nerve cells into your brain and spinal cord, causing nerve damage as it goes. The prodromal phase starts when the rabies virus has entered your nervous system. Your immune system tries to fight back, causing flu-like symptoms. Nerve damage might cause tingling, pain or numbness where you were bitten. This lasts two to 10 days. There aren’t any effective treatments when rabies reaches this phase.
In this phase, the rabies virus starts damaging your brain and spinal cord. About two-thirds of people have furious rabies, with symptoms like aggression, seizures and delirium. Others have paralytic rabies, with weakness and paralysis progressing from the bite wound to the rest of their body. Furious rabies can last a few days to a week. Paralytic rabies can last up to a month.
Many people enter a coma in the final stages of a rabies infection. Rabies eventually leads to death.
You usually have no symptoms of rabies for several weeks after it enters your body. When rabies makes it to your central nervous system (prodromal phase), you experience flu-like symptoms. In the final stages, you have neurological (brain) symptoms.
Neurological symptoms of rabies are either furious or paralytic. Furious rabies symptoms may come and go with periods of calm in between (furious episodes).
The virus RABV causes rabies in humans and animals. It moves around in your body through your nerves, causing nerve damage. It hides from your immune system until it gets to your brain, where it causes brain damage and eventually leads to death.
Rabies is carried by warm-blooded animals (mammals) and collects in their saliva (spit). You usually get rabies through the bite of an infected animal.
Rabies is most commonly found in bats, skunks, raccoons and foxes, but other animals — including your pet dog or cat — can become infected. If a break in your skin comes in contact with the spit of an infected animal, you could get rabies.
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Rarely, people have gotten rabies from receiving donated organs.
Rabies is most likely to be found in wild animals, including bats. In developing countries, most people get rabies from domestic dogs.
In the U.S., most people get rabies from bat bites. The bite marks are so small — about the size of the tip of a pencil — that many people don’t know they’ve been bitten. That’s why it’s important to see a healthcare provider if you’ve had any contact with bats and are unsure if you could’ve been bitten.
Unlike most illnesses, you shouldn’t wait for symptoms to diagnose rabies. If you’ve been bitten or scratched by a wild animal or a pet that might have rabies, talk to your healthcare provider right away. They’ll examine your wound and ask questions to determine whether you need to be treated for rabies. You may also be tested for signs of rabies.
Your provider may ask you:
If the animal could have rabies, it’ll be watched for signs or tested, if possible. Animals have to be euthanized (humanely killed) to test them.
Tests for rabies might include:
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There’s no approved treatment for rabies once you have symptoms. If you’ve been exposed to rabies (were bitten by or been in contact with an infected animal), contact a healthcare provider as soon as possible.
Clean the wound gently but thoroughly with soap and water. Ask your provider for additional instructions on cleaning the wound.
Your provider will give you a series of shots (vaccinations) to prevent the virus from causing rabies. They’ll also give you an antibody treatment directly to the wound if you’ve never been vaccinated before.
If you’re bitten or scratched by a wild animal, there are steps you can take to prevent rabies.
Medications prevent an infection from traveling to your brain if you’ve been exposed to rabies (post-exposure prophylaxis/PEP). These medications are often combined:
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You might have mild side effects of rabies vaccines, including:
If you have severe side effects, contact your provider.
If you’ve been bitten or scratched by an animal:
There’s no cure for rabies once it’s moved to your brain because it’s protected by your blood-brain barrier.
Your blood-brain barrier is a layer between your brain and the blood vessels in your head. Its job is to protect your brain by keeping toxins and other dangerous substances from getting into your brain from your blood. It’s like a very fine strainer.
Researchers aren’t sure how, but rabies locks this barrier down even further, so medications that might destroy it can’t get through.
Rabies is preventable. Keeping your pets safe and staying away from wild animals will help prevent you from being exposed to rabies. If you’re exposed, you can get a vaccine to prevent rabies before symptoms start.
If you’re at higher risk for rabies, you should get vaccinated before exposure based on the recommendations of your local health authority. This is called pre-exposure prophylaxis (PREP) and it’s a series of two shots. How frequently you need boosters depends on how high your risk of exposure is.
You’re usually considered higher risk for rabies if you:
If you’ve been exposed to rabies, you can expect two weeks of shots. You may have mild side effects to the shots, like pain where your healthcare provider stuck the needle, or feeling sick.
You can survive rabies exposure if you’re treated within a few days of exposure, before you have symptoms. Once you have rabies — that is, you’re showing symptoms of the virus affecting your brain — there aren’t any effective treatments available. Without early vaccination and antibody treatment, rabies is nearly always fatal.
You can live several weeks or months after being exposed to rabies without symptoms. Once symptoms start, rabies causes death within a few days.
You should get care for an animal bite or other exposure to rabies right away. Rabies exposure is an urgent situation.
Contact a healthcare provider as soon as possible if you:
Be prepared to answer questions about how you got injured, what kind of animal it was and if you can observe the animal for several days.
Go to the ER if you have a bite or wound that is deep, won’t stop bleeding or is on your face or neck.
It’s common for dogs to have rabies in developing areas of Asia and Africa. In developed countries, including the U.S., Canada and countries of Western Europe, rabies isn’t usually found in domestic (pet) dogs.
A note from Cleveland Clinic
Rabies is a serious illness that’s almost always fatal. Fortunately, it’s completely preventable if you’re treated right away. If you’ve been bitten by an animal or think you’ve been exposed to rabies, contact your healthcare provider right away.
Last reviewed on 08/27/2022.
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