Can rabies be cured?

Written by Xiong Hong Hai
Infectious Disease
Updated on December 10, 2024
00:00
00:00

Rabies is an incurable disease, and once symptoms develop, it is almost always 100% fatal. However, it is meaningful to use certain medications to control the patient's agitation and relieve their suffering. For example, sedatives such as Valium and phenobarbital can be used.

After the onset of rabies, it is essential to isolate the patient and manage the symptoms according to the specific situation. Since rabies is incurable, prevention is critical. If bitten by animals such as dogs or cats, it is necessary to clean and disinfect the wound immediately and then promptly administer rabies vaccine and rabies immunoglobulin.

Other Voices

doctor image
home-news-image
Written by Xiong Hong Hai
Infectious Disease
38sec home-news-image

Rabies is transmitted by what?

Rabies is an infectious disease primarily caused by bites from rabid dogs. According to the epidemiology of rabies in our country, it is mostly contracted from dog bites when no rabies vaccine has been administered. Of course, there is also a risk of infection from scratches by cats or dogs during their infectious periods or bites from infected cats, as well as scratches from bats carrying the rabies virus. To date, there have been no reported cases of human-to-human transmission. Rabies is a fatal disease, with a 100% fatality rate upon infection, thus prevention is crucial.

doctor image
home-news-image
Written by Xiong Hong Hai
Infectious Disease
31sec home-news-image

Why is rabies afraid of water?

The reason why rabies fears water is because the rabies virus proliferates extensively in the brain, causing massive damage to brain tissues and cells. When it affects certain swallowing nerves and glossopharyngeal nerves, and causes extensive necrosis of brain and liver cells, these symptoms will appear. In addition to fearing water, there is also a fear of bright light, wind sounds, and noise. There will be evident fear-induced spasms, and eventually, it leads to death due to coma, and it is also prone to fever.

doctor image
home-news-image
Written by Xiong Hong Hai
Infectious Disease
42sec home-news-image

How long does rabies usually take to manifest?

Rabies generally has a variable incubation period. The question actually refers to the incubation period of rabies. The duration of this period can vary widely; the shortest is about five days before onset of the disease, while the longest can reach up to eight years. The average incubation period is two to three months, with cases exceeding one year accounting for 2%-3% of instances. The length of the incubation period is related to factors such as the virulence of the virus, and the nerve distribution at the site of entry. The greater the amount of the virus, the stronger its virulence, and the richer the nerve supply at the site of entry, especially if it is closer to the central nervous system, the shorter the incubation period will be.

doctor image
home-news-image
Written by Xiong Hong Hai
Infectious Disease
36sec home-news-image

Rabies Symptoms

Rabies, if symptoms appear, often leads to panic, hallucinations, restlessness, fear of water, fear of light, fear of wind, fear of noise, and even results in opisthotonos among other related symptoms. Rabies is a fatal disease, and once symptoms develop, survival rarely exceeds two weeks, with most cases resulting in death within three to five days. In terms of treatment, symptomatic management and isolation are primarily conducted. Therefore, it is crucial to take preventive measures against rabies.

doctor image
home-news-image
Written by Xiong Hong Hai
Infectious Disease
32sec home-news-image

Rabies fear of water refers to hydrophobia, a symptom of rabies characterized by a fear or panic attack when attempting to drink water or when presented with liquids.

Patients with rabies are indeed very afraid of water. When trying to drink water, or even when seeing water or hearing the word "water," they experience uncontrollable spasms in the throat muscles and difficulty swallowing. Although they are very thirsty, they dare not drink water. In addition to being afraid of water, they are also afraid of bright lights, noise, and wind. These stimuli can cause whole-body spasms and pain, lead to opisthotonos, excessive nervous excitement, and eventually result in death due to coma.