Rabies is one of the most serious infectious diseases.diseases that is viral in nature. Pathology occurs with serious consequences for the nervous system and in most cases leads to the death of the patient. The bite of an animal can cause a person to have this infection. But what our smaller brothers can be the culprits of such a serious illness as rabies? The incubation period of a person lasts how many days? Let's try to figure it out.
Animals - carriers of the rabies virus
Today, there are two types of rabies: natural and urban. The first is transmitted through wild animals - bats, foxes, wolves, jackals.
And with the second home carriers are consideredanimals, but most often rabies is transmitted through the bite of an infected dog. How long does the incubation period of rabies in humans? How to recognize that the animal is infected with this virus?
Rabies in an animal: how to recognize?
The danger of infected animals is that the first signs of the disease in them can begin to appear only after a couple of months.
If we talk about rabies, the incubation periodin humans it is one, and in an animal it depends on age and weight and can be from 7 days up to a year. To determine this disease in animals can be on the following grounds:
- Inadequate behavior.Wild animals can lose their sense of caution and get closer to their inhabitants and people. And pets with rabies change their behavior - they become more affectionate, lazy and drowsy.
- Changing appetite. An animal infected with rabies may eat non-edible foods, such as land.
- Abundant salivation and vomiting. These symptoms in rabies can occur in an animal very often. The process of swallowing is disturbed, the animals choke while eating.
- Coordination is broken. The animal often staggers when walking.
- Aggression. This symptom may appear one of the last, and, as a rule, after a couple of days the animal dies.
But what is the incubation period for rabies in humans after infection? What provokes the disease?
Causes of Rabies
The causative agent of the disease is a virusNeuroiyctes rabid. A person becomes infected by the saliva of a sick animal that enters a wound during a bite. The virus is transmitted through saliva. The most dangerous for a person are bites in the head and hand.
After entering the wound the virus is very fastspreads to all nerve trunks and reaches the central nervous system, and after penetrating the periphery affects the entire nervous system. Multiplying, the pathogen causes serious changes: hemorrhage, edema, changes in nerve cells.
При ускоренном развитии симптомов заболевания a person dies very quickly, only an instant response and the introduction of a vaccine in the first hours after a bite give a chance for survival. But how is rabies clinically manifested? The incubation period for people how long can it last?
Rabies: clinical manifestations
In this age of technology, vaccines have long been created,due to which the patient can quickly get rid of rabies infection, and the clinical signs in this case is rare. But a disease can still occur, and several factors can provoke it:
- Long lack of qualified medical care.
- Disorders in the mode of vaccinations.
- Self-completed vaccination period of a previously scheduled period.
Most often, the death of the patient leads to ignorancewhat to do immediately after the bite of the animal, and neglect of their health. Most people just do not pay attention to the bite - the wound was treated, well and good. They do not even suspect that the usual shallow wound (at first glance) can be the cause of a deadly disease, from which it will be impossible to recover in a couple of days.
Disease such as rabies (incubationthe period in humans can have a different duration depending on the location of the bite) is very dangerous, and only a visit to the doctor immediately after the attack of the animal and vaccination can save from death. But what signs should still make a person sound the alarm?
The first manifestations of rabies in humans
After the incubation period is over, and the virus has multiplied sufficiently in the body, you can see the first manifestations of the disease. It is characterized by the following symptoms:
- The patient is greatly disturbed by the wound. The bite site hurts, pulls, itches, and if a scar has already appeared, then it most often swells up and becomes inflamed.
- Body temperature rises and stays at 37 degrees.
- There is a severe headache, general weakness, nausea and even vomiting.
- If the wound is in the face, then hallucinations may appear.
- There is a depressive state, anxiety, and maybe even irritability.
But it is worth remembering that there is rabies of several stages, and the symptoms of each of them are very different.
The incubation period
Be sure to have a rabies incubation periodin people. Symptoms at this time have not yet manifested. This stage proceeds without signs. It can last up to three months, although there have been cases when the incubation period for people has been delayed for many years, but more often it is still not more than 12 months. Due to the length of time, most patients sometimes cannot even remember who or when they have been bitten.
If the victim has been bitten in the head or neck,The person does not immediately develop rabies. The incubation period may be just over one and a half months. A person bitten by the hand may not suspect anything wrong for much longer. And the further course of the disease can be divided into several main stages.
The main stages of rabies
After the virus enters the human bodybegins if we are talking about rabies, the incubation period in humans. The stages of the disease are different, they can rapidly replace each other and are distinguished by their symptoms:
1. Prodromal period.At this time, the rabies virus enters the central nervous system. This stage lasts from 2 to 10 days. At this time, the first signs of the virus appear: itching, soreness at the site of the bite. These symptoms can be observed first, but there are also others:
- general malaise;
- severe weight loss;
- headache;
- fever;
- nausea;
- an intestinal disorder;
- sense of anxiety;
- insomnia;
- depression.
2. Stage of arousal.During her illness, the entire CNS is already affected. Very clearly manifests at this time rabies symptoms in humans. The incubation period is long over, and all the signs of a deadly disease are evident. Among the symptoms are very pronounced convulsions, the patient may die as soon as this stage of the disease begins, or its manifestations will lead to death.
Violent and paralytic rabies oftendevelop during the second stage of the disease. During this period, patients develop hyperactivity, anxiety, hallucinations at a rapid pace. After a day, all these symptoms will be accompanied by flashes of great anxiety. Patients become so aggressive that they begin to rush at people, tear their clothes and beat their heads against the wall. Some people may have convulsions (quite intense), and in one "fine" moment such an attack ends with paralysis.
3. The stage of paralysis.Movement of the tongue and eye muscles is paralyzed, the temperature rises to 40 degrees, the pressure drops, and the heart begins to contract faster. The duration of this stage is different for all patients, but it ends, as a rule, with death on the background of a lesion of the cardiovascular and respiratory centers.
4. Death.It is very important to determine exactly when the brain of a person with rabies has died. This can be done using a biopsy or determining the absence of blood flow. Very often, many people mistakenly take some neurological symptoms for brain death.
Diagnosis of rabies in humans
This is another important issue that should be discussed under the theme "Rabies: an incubation period in humans."
Diagnostics should be done as quickly as possible.First of all, it is determined when a person was bitten, if the animal's saliva got into the wound. Clinical manifestations are mostly monotonous. The number of lymphocytes increases in the blood, but eosinophils are absent. A smear imprint, which is taken from the surface of the cornea, indicates the presence of an antigen produced by an infection that has entered the human body.
Treatment of rabies
If the patient has the first signsrabies, it is placed in the infectious disease ward. Therapy is carried out to alleviate the symptoms, while also using supportive treatment. Pain relievers are prescribed, anticonvulsants, if necessary, sleeping pills, parenteral nutrition, as well as drugs that can relieve all the symptoms of rabies.
The most effective treatment for thispathology has not yet been invented. The only thing that can protect and prevent the development of such an unpleasant scenario as rabies, the incubation period in humans, post-exposure vaccine. This is the best method of prevention.
Prevention of disease
Only vaccination will protect a person against the rabies virus. The preventive course of vaccinations is obligatory for those who are directly associated with the risk of infection by the nature of their activities.
All animals that have bitten a person orthey behave too aggressively; it is urgently necessary to take them to the veterinarian to conduct an examination and send them to the quarantine zone for 10 days. If the animal has not died during this time, there is a possibility that it does not have rabies. Incubation period in humans (prophylaxis very important!) differs in duration from that of animals, so you can make a mistake with the diagnosis.
If suddenly the animal bit the person, thenBe sure to treat the wound. The bite area is cleaned with a soapy 20% solution. If the wound is too deep, then in this case washing is done with the help of a catheter so that the jet of water gets as deep as possible inside. In no case can not stitches or cauterize it.
When do not need to be vaccinated?
Immediately the vaccine is administered to a person with the following symptoms:
- Bites, scratches, saliva on an open wound or mucous membranes from animals that are infected with the rabies virus.
- Injuries to objects on which saliva or the brain of an infected animal may be present.
- Bites through clothing or in cases where it has been damaged by the animal's teeth.
- If the bitten animal died within a few days after the bite.
- Wild animal bites.
- Damage to the skin by a person infected with the rabies virus.
So, let us return again to the issue of injections, because it is not enough just to know how rabies manifest itself, the incubation period in humans.
Postexposure vaccine is administered immediately ininpatient or outpatient. A person may not be vaccinated in the event that he was bitten by a pet, the bite was not applied to the neck, face or hands, if it was once. When a dangerous place is injured, three vaccinations are given to the victim. This is necessary even if the bite was inflicted by a pet, as it may be a carrier of the rabies virus, and the person will manifest the ailment, but not the animal.
For any animal that has bitten a person, you must trace 10 or even 14 days, and if there are first signs of rabies, immediately seek vaccination.
Conclusion
Как стало ясно из вышесказанного, лучше сделать rabies vaccination than to allow the development of the disease, because the first symptoms may not immediately appear, and the further development of the infection can lead to serious consequences. Today they have not yet invented such a tool that would completely cure rabies. The treatment is carried out only with drugs that alleviate the symptoms and remove them. If time does not have time to get vaccinated, then rabies in most cases leads to death.
