Infection can have serious consequences for a person
With a lethality of about 100% of cases, rabies is a severe acute viral infectious disease that affects mammals, including humans. Caused by a virus of the genus Lyssavirus, family Rabhdoviridae, the infection is amenable to elimination in the urban cycle – transmitted from dogs and cats, in addition to the presence of effective preventive measures, such as vaccination of humans and animals, the availability of human anti-rabies serum, and a blockade of the focus on animals.
Transmitted to humans by the saliva of infected animals, mainly through bites, rabies can also be transmitted by scratching and/or licking these animals.
Understand the infection cycle of a zoonosis (a disease transmitted from animals to humans):
The incubation period of the virus varies between species, from days to years, averaging 45 days in humans and may be shorter in children. In dogs and cats, salivary shedding of the virus occurs 2–5 days before the onset of clinical signs and persists throughout the illness (transmissibility period). The death of the animal occurs on average between 5 and 7 days after the onset of symptoms.
After incubation, clinical signs and symptoms of rabies appear, which persist for an average of 2 to 10 days in the absence of medical attention. During this period, the patient:
• General malaise;
• Slight increase in temperature;
• anorexia;
• Headache;
• Nausea;
• Sore throat;
• numbness;
• Irritability;
• Anxiety;
• Feeling of longing;
• Changes in behavior.
Rabies then progresses to more serious and complex manifestations such as increasing anxiety, fever, delirium, involuntary muscle spasms, and even convulsions.
Although there is no difficulty in making a diagnosis when the clinical presentation is accompanied by disease-specific signs and symptoms preceded by a bite, scratch, or lick from a rabid animal, the best form of treatment is prophylaxis with pre- and post-exposure vaccination.
The pre-exposure prophylaxis measure consists of immunizing people at risk of constant exposure to the rabies virus, such as veterinarians, biologists, students of both fields, agronomy, animal science and related fields. Once infected, it is based on immediately washing the wound inflicted by pets (dogs and cats) or even bats, monkeys and foxes with soap and water and finding a medical facility as soon as possible to assess the need for rabies. prophylaxis (vaccination or serum).
Annual rabies vaccination of dogs and cats is the best way to prevent transmission of the disease. Although the distribution of rabies vaccines is carried out by the Ministry of Health, the Ministry emphasizes that the planning of vaccination campaigns is the responsibility of each federal unit, taking into account regional characteristics for better implementation.
ANGER IN NUMBERS
Five cases have been confirmed in the country this year, all have died. These cases join another 40 registered between 2010 and 2022, and there were no infections in 2014.
In the historic human rabies case series in Brazil, we only have two cures.
According to the Ministry of Health