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Symptoms of rabies

The initial symptoms of rabies are mild, but they quickly become serious.

The incubation period

The incubation period is the time it takes for symptoms to develop after a person

is infected with the virus. The incubation period for rabies is usually two to 12 weeks,

although it can be as short as four days. It would be highly unusual for the incubation

period to last for more than a year.

The closer the site of infection is to your brain, the shorter the incubation period.

For eample, a bite to your face, head or neck will have a shorter incubation period than a

bite to your arm or leg.

The length of the incubation period is important because it is the only period in

which treatment can be successful.

Initial symptoms

The initial symptoms of rabies are often vague, and it can be easy to mistake them

for other less serious types of infection. They include!

a high temperature of "#$% &1''.($F) or above

chills

fatigue &etreme tiredness)

problems sleeping lack of appetite

headache

irritability

aniety

sore throat

vomiting

*round half of people will also eperience pain and a tingling sensation at the site

of the infection.

Advanced symptoms

Initial symptoms of rabies last for two to 1' days before more severe symptoms

start to develop. There are two types of advanced rabies!

furious rabies, which accounts for four out of five cases

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dumb or paralytic rabies, which accounts for the remainder of cases

Furious rabies

Furious rabies is characterised by episodes of increasingly odd and hyperactive

behaviour, separated by periods of relative calm. +uring these episodes a person may

have some or all of the following signs and symptoms!

aggressive behaviour, such as thrashing out or biting

agitation

hallucinations seeing or hearing things that are not real

delusions believing things that are obviously untrue

ecessive production of saliva

high temperature &fever) ecessive sweating

the hair on their skin stands up

a sustained erection &in men)

-eople with furious rabies will also develop hydrophobia &a fear of water). This

initially begins as a pain in the throat or difficulty swallowing. n attempting to swallow,

the muscles in the throat go into a brief spasm that lasts for a few seconds. /ubsequently

the sight, sound or even the mention of water &or any other liquid) can trigger further

spasms. There will also be fear of bright light &photophobia) and fear of bree0es

&aerophobia).

* few days after these symptoms develop, the affected person will fall into a

coma and die, usually as a result of heart or lung failure.

Dumb or paralytic rabies

+umb rabies, sometimes called paralytic rabies, is characterised by muscle

weakness, loss of sensation andparalysis&inability to move one or more muscles). This

usually begins in the hands and feet before spreading throughout the body.

ydrophobia is unusual in cases of dumb rabies, although muscles may go into

spasm. *s with furious rabies, someone with dumb rabies will fall into a coma and

eventually die from heart or lung failure.

Symptoms of rabies in an animal

*s with humans, the symptoms of rabies in an animal follow a number of stages.

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The first stage is marked by initial vague symptoms, such as!

loss of appetite

a change in normal behaviour, such as appearing unusually tame around

strangers

The second stage is known as the mad dog stage and usually lasts for two to

four days. It is characterised by aggressive and erratic behaviour, such as!

constantly barking or growling

no fear of normal natural enemies

attempting to attack and bite anything that comes near, including

inanimate ob3ects

The final stage, known as the paralytic stage, lasts for two to four days and is

characterised by symptoms such as!

the animal appearing to be choking

foaming at the mouth

the dropping of the lower 3aw &in dogs)

paralysis of the 3aw, mouth and throat muscles

RABIES AND HDR!"H!BIA

ydrophobia occurs due to the bite of rabid animals resulting in the introduction

of rabies virus into the body. 4ceptionally licks or dropping of saliva on a wound may

also cause hydrophobia.

5abies and hydrophobia are not the same6 patients can develop hydrophobia for a

variety of reasons, most likely due to a psychiatric disorder. The hydrophobia caused by

rabies is due to the neurological effects of a virus. -atients that ehibit hydrophobia 7is

actually presenting with a complement of symptoms including difficulty swallowing asthe throat becomes paraly0ed, inability to quench thirst, and panic when presented with

fluids. The latter two are the result of inflammation in the brain after the virus has entered

the central nervous system, making hydrophobia one of the later symptoms that appear.

There are several other symptoms that appear and are more diagnostic of rabies than

hydrophobia, which is good since treatment needs to occur early after eposure.

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