100% fatality rate when bitten by a rabid dog if not vaccinated

According to Dr. Nguyen Trung Cap, Emergency Department, Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases, rabies is transmitted mainly through bites or scratches, licks of rabid animals on damaged skin. Rabies in humans can be prevented and treated with vaccines or anti-rabies serum. Serum injection is to introduce a certain amount of available antibodies into the body to neutralize the rabies virus, while the vaccine is to strengthen long-term immunity later.

Symptoms of rabies in humans include fear of water, fear of wind, convulsions, and paralysis. Once rabies has occurred, the mortality rate is almost 100% for both humans and animals.

Rabid dogs will have changes in their normal behavior such as running without reason, hiding in dark places, panicking, avoiding, biting when not provoked, salivating or foaming at the mouth. Because of hunger, the animal can chew everything, many have paralyzed legs and walk in circles...

Rabies often increases in the summer. The incubation period is long, the earliest is half a month, most are a few months, some are up to several years. The time of onset depends on the location of the dog bite. The closer the dog bite is to the central nervous system, the faster the victim develops the disease. Therefore, people who are bitten by dogs in the head, face and neck area need to be injected with anti-rabies serum as soon as possible within 12 hours of being bitten.

If you know for sure that the dog has rabies, is sick, or died the day after the bite, you are in a high-risk group and need to get anti-rabies serum first, then get rabies vaccine.

In case of a mild bite, occurring on the leg, far from the central nervous system and the animal was normal at the time of the bite, the dog should be monitored for 10-15 days. During the monitoring period, if the dog stops eating, dies, goes missing... then the dog must be vaccinated against rabies immediately.

However, if you go to a medical facility late after a dog bite, the rabies serum injection will no longer be effective. It is best to get vaccinated immediately after a dog bite. You must get the full dose of vaccine according to regulations, dosage, technique and the correct interval between injections according to instructions.

When bitten by a rabid or suspected rabid animal, the wound must be immediately washed with soapy water or concentrated salt water, rinsed with clean water several times, and an antiseptic such as alcohol applied. The sooner the wound is treated locally, the more effective the antiseptic and rabies virus prevention will be. Afterwards, the victim must immediately go to a medical facility for advice and preventive treatment.

People at high risk of contracting the disease such as veterinary staff, forest rangers, food processors, children under 15 years old who often play around and have close contact with dogs and cats... should be vaccinated against rabies.

The Department of Preventive Medicine, Ministry of Health recommends that families should fully vaccinate their dogs and cats and get booster shots every year according to veterinary recommendations. Do not let dogs and cats roam free. Dogs on the street must wear muzzles. Do not play with or tease dogs and cats. Absolutely do not use herbal medicine, do not self-treat, do not ask a traditional healer to treat rabies.

On April 2-3, a father and son in Hoa Binh died after suffering rabies from dog bites. Their family of four were all bitten by dogs during Tet but did not get rabies vaccinations.

"The unfortunate thing is that they could have completely avoided death by getting vaccinated when bitten by a dog," Dr. Cap said.