Hydrophobia - The Fear of Water 

Last-Modified: 05/02/09 10:38 - 

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   What is Rabies ?  

RABIES - also called hydrophobia - the fear of water, or lyssa acute, is a usually fatal, viral infectious disease of the central nervous system. The disease is usually spread among domestic dogs and wild carnivorous animals; all warm-blooded animals are susceptible to rabies infection. The virus, a rhabdo-virus, is often present in the salivary glands of rabid animals and is excreted in the saliva; thus, the bite of the infected animal introduces the virus into a fresh wound. Under favorable conditions, the virus propagates along nerve tissue from the wound to the brain and becomes established in the central nervous system. The disease develops most often between four and six weeks after infection, but the incubation period may vary from 10 days to eight months.

Rabies often begins with excitation of the central nervous system expressed as irritability and viciousness and a heightened courage level. A rabid animal is most dangerous during the early stages of the disease because it appears to be healthy and may seem friendly but will bite at the slightest provocation. Wild animals that appear to be tame and that approach people or human habitations in the daytime should be suspected of having rabies.

Infected dogs usually show a sudden change in personality with a short excitation phase that is characterized by restlessness, nervousness, irritability, and viciousness and is followed by depression and paralysis. Sudden death without recognizable signs of illness is common. Dogs that develop the predominantly excited type of rabies invariably die of the infection, usually within three to five days after the onset of symptoms. Those that develop the paralytic type of rabies without any evidence of excitation or viciousness may recover on rare occasions. Paralysis of the voice-muscles in rabid dogs may produce a characteristic change in the sound of the bark.

Rabies in humans is similar to that in animals. Symptoms include depression, headache, nausea, seizures, anorexia, muscle stiffness, and increased production of saliva that brings a foaming of the mouth. Abnormal sensations, such as itching, around the site of exposure are a common early symptom. Repeated episodes of painful contraction of the muscles of the throat may occur upon attempting to swallow or may be elicited by the sight of water. 

This reaction to water is called hydrophobia - the fear of water. Rabies in humans is almost always fatal. Death ordinarily occurs within three to five days after the onset of symptoms due to cardiac or respiratory failure. Sometimes rabies is characterized by paralysis without any evidence of excitation of the nervous system. In such cases the course of the disease may be prolonged to a week or more.

If administered soon after infection, serum or vaccine can be effective in combating the disease. This is a type of passive immunization whereby animals are immunized with attenuated rabies virus, and antibodies from these animals are injected into infected persons to give them temporary immunity to rabies. The treatment is effective if given within 24 hours after exposure but has little, if any, value if given three or more days after infection by rabies. Immediate treatment of animal-bite wounds by cleansing with soap and water is extremely important because much, if not all, of the virus can be thus removed.

Vaccines prepared from rabies virus can be used to protect people who are likely to be in contact with infected animals. The safest and most effective vaccines are human diploid-cell vaccine - HDCV, purified chick embryo cell culture - PCEC, and rabies vaccine adsorbed - RVA. When a person not protected by previous immunization is bitten by a rabid animal, treatment is a dose of serum followed by a series of vaccinations. With the older vaccines, at least 16 injections were required, whereas with HDCV, PCEC, or RVA, five are usually sufficient.

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT  RABIES

  What is Rabies?  

Rabies, The Rage or Hydrophobia - a fear of water, is generally known as the disease that makes canines sick and frenzied. Foxes and Bats are the two commonest animals who get Rabies and carry Rabies, accordingly many dogs in many northern European countries, where it is prevalent are vaccinated against it. However, it can affect all warm-blooded creatures, including us.

Rabies is caused by a virus, the lyssa virus or the Rhabdo-virus, and it is one of the few in that particular group, which can cause disease in humans. Among other things, it attacks the central nervous system. But is also present in the animal's saliva, which is, ironically the agent that spreads the infection, because when an animal gets sick with this, for no reason it may start to bite. We are mostly often infected by the bite of a dog, bat or monkey.

Rabies is one of those diseases born of legend, and almost instinctively feared because by the time the symptoms appear, the disease can no longer be cured and almost always ends in an agonizing death. Happily, Rabies can be prevented with a vaccine and even if you have been bitten, there is every chance that you can be treated before the symptoms develop. But if you have been bitten by a Rabid animal and you do not act immediately, you will most probably die. 

The virus hides from the immune system, and is not always recognized as a antigen, as a consequence, no real immune response will develop, so the body does not always combats it. After a bite that breaks the skin, saliva carrying the infection enters the body and the virus travels along the neural pathways into the Central Nervous System - CNS. It soon replicates and disperses into the brain. The brain becomes inflamed and many functions of the CNS are affected.

Generally the incubation period is between three weeks and three months, the time that can pass between the infection point, and the onset of symptoms. However, instances of incubation periods lasting years, is not extraordinary.

Rabies is the classic Zoonosis. Zoonosis is a disease or infection that is caught directly from another animal. Bats are a main source of infection in countries where domestic animals are vaccinated and the fox population must be forcefully controlled.

Rabies is common in Asia, especially in India, where up to 50,000 die each year. Some parts of America and Africa, have it. Greenland and many countries in Europe have rabies in their animal populations. Although most of Scandinavia, as well as Japan, Australia and New Zealand are practically  Rabies-Free. This is upheld by having strict regulations on importing animals. The British Isles is also mostly Rabies-free, but the recent ban on fox-hunting may change this; the Englishman's perception of the cuddly fox may soon change. Britain has it own problems in keeping out illegal immigrants and illegal asylum-seekers, that enter the country by the hundreds weekly, a small percentage of these people will carry Rabies and other erroneous diseases.

In any event if you get bitten or scratched by an animal or person for that matter that seems to have the symptoms or not, go straight to your nearest Emergency Room or Casualty.

 

Bacteria can do this to your mouth

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