Rabies Health Article

Definition

Rabies is an acute viral disease of the central nervous system that affects humans and other mammals. It is almost exclusively transmitted through saliva from the bite of an infected animal. Another name for the disease is hydrophobia, which literally means "fear of water," a symptom shared by half of all people infected with rabies. Other symptoms include fever, depression, confusion, painful muscle spasms, sensitivity to touch, loud noise, and light, extreme thirst, painful swallowing, excessive salivation, and loss of muscle tone. If rabies is not prevented by immunization, it is essentially always fatal.

Description

Worldwide, approximately 15,000 cases of human rabies continue to occur annually. Remarkably, although more than one million persons in the United States are bitten each year by animals, on average, only one or two persons die from the disease each year. Nevertheless, with the continued encroachment of humans on animal habitats, both for housing and recreational purposes, rabies remains a public health concern.

Both domestic and wild animals may transmit rabies. With the widespread vaccination of domesticated animals in the United States, dogs in particular, the number of cases of rabies has significantly declined. In 1955 domesticated animals, especially dogs, constituted 47% of the reported rabies cases. By 1994, fewer than 2% of positive tests occurred in dogs. In fact, in the 1990s, cats outnumbered dogs as transmitters of the disease. As of 1997, most cases of rabies are in wild animals, particularly bats, raccoons, skunks, foxes, wolves, and coyotes.

Anyone who has been bitten by an animal, regardless of age or sex, can contract rabies. However, people whose occupations involve routine exposure to a domestic animal that has not been immunized or to wildlife are at a greater risk for getting the disease. As a result, cave explorers, farm and ranch workers, animal trainers and caretakers, forest rangers, animal exterminators, some laboratory workers, and veterinarians are at a higher risk.