Mar x, 2021

Interviewer: You lot get bitten by some sort of animal, whether it's a dog or a wild creature, the beginning thing you lot probably are starting to worry almost is, "Did I get rabies?" We're going to find out more than nigh that next on The Scope.

Dr. Troy Madsen's an emergency room md at Academy of Utah Wellness Care. You get bit by an brute, I think the first thing a lot of people think later on, "Ouch," is, "Ooh, do I have rabies?" Is that a real threat?

Dr. Madsen: It'southward a real concern. And then, primarily, you're thinking about this with dog bites, cat bites, raccoons, foxes, and bats. And one of the actually interesting well-nigh bats is, and this is something I've found kind of fascinating, the Centers for Affliction Control, the CDC, actually recommends if you wake upwards and y'all await at the ceiling and there's a bat there, they actually recommend getting the rabies vaccine in that situation. The idea being that you may take been bitten by the bat during the dark, y'all may not know you've been bitten, the bite marks are usually and then small you can't run across them. And so the business is that great.

There are sure animals that you may get bitten by and you may wonder about the concern about rabies, animals like rabbits, rats, mice. Those are not actually concerns. The big thing I think about in my mind, typically, the animals that are going to transmit rabies are animals that are not necessarily vegetarian-type animals. And so rabbits, those things, they don't actually transmit rabies. It'southward more things similar foxes, skunks, raccoons, these kinds of scavenger animals that may exist eating some meat here and in that location. Those kinds of animals are sometimes those that behave rabies and those are the ones we go concerned about in proverb, "Hey, if you lot've been bitten by one of these animals, we probably demand to think about rabies."

In terms of dogs and cats, if it's an animal where y'all don't know the dog or y'all can't find it, y'all don't know if information technology's had its shots, those are likewise animals where admittedly we worried almost rabies and we treat you potentially to prevent a rabies infection.

Interviewer: So if it's a neighborhood dog, good idea to go talk to that neighbor, get that information and save yourself from the rabies shots, I suppose?

Dr. Madsen: Exactly.

Interviewer: If you lot find out, no, they haven't had their vaccinations, merely they don't seem to be showing any symptoms, or you've been bitten by some other creature where you're unsure, what would the next steps be?

Dr. Madsen: Then, that'south a state of affairs where you need to go the rabies vaccine. And what that involves, first of all, is giving them a medication at the site of the bite wound to forbid rabies infection. It's non necessarily the vaccine, but it'south something that kind of neutralizes the virus if it is there. And then I start them on a series of basically four shots, where they'll come in, they'll go the shot that day, they'll come back in a few more than days, get some other shot. These are all vaccines to forestall a rabies infection.

And that'south a precaution I'm going to have on anyone who comes in after a seize with teeth from any beast that could be conveying rabies. And the reason we're very, very cautious in that state of affairs is because there'due south not much you can do if someone gets rabies. It's something yous actually want to preclude. You don't want somebody to catch it because if someone catches rabies and they really develop the disease, it'south nearly universally fatal.

Interviewer: Really? So it'south bad news, it'southward serious stuff.

Dr. Madsen: It's bad news if you go it, yes. It'due south one of those things y'all can endeavour and treat information technology and try and get them through it, merely information technology's a horrible affair to become. So actually, the handling for rabies is prevention.

Interviewer: Gotcha. And these shots, they used to be in the stomach, right? And I heard they used to be actually painful and there are a lot of them, only you're proverb there'due south one at the site and and so four more afterwards that. Where are those 4 more?

Dr. Madsen: They're merely in your arm or your leg. Information technology'southward not in the tummy. I call back hearing that every bit a child too.

Interviewer: Has that ever been truthful?

Dr. Madsen: I don't know. That'southward . . .

Interviewer: Oh. Not since you've been in medicine.

Dr. Madsen: Not in the last 15 years that I've been in the medical profession.

Interviewer: Okay. All correct.

Dr. Madsen: I don't know. I heard that too. I think always hearing that yous had to get a shot in the breadbasket and I thought, "Wow, if I got bitten past a canis familiaris, no manner would I want to get become the rabies shot because that sounds miserable." But no, these are shots, you requite them the same place y'all'd requite a tetanus shot or something like that. They hurt a trivial fleck, kind of like a tetanus shot would, but it's not something, like some really crazy shot that you're getting in your tum.

Interviewer: Aye. And better than the alternative.

Dr. Madsen: Information technology's much ameliorate than the alternative. Exactly. You don't desire to get rabies.

Interviewer: And is this an ER-only thing or could you lot do an Urgent Care for this?

Dr. Madsen: I remember Urgent Cares can do this. I can't say I've looked into information technology specifically to see if they offering the rabies vaccine in most Urgent Cares, but it'due south a pretty straightforward thing. If you went there and they only said, "Hey, we don't have the vaccine hither," then they're going to send y'all to the ER, simply I recall information technology'southward a reasonable place to commencement.

Interviewer: All right. And is there a fourth dimension limit? After I get bit, is it a day? Six hours? Iii hours?

Dr. Madsen: I would want to go far within the first 24 hours. Actually, every bit soon equally yous can. I would non put it off, particularly, like I said, because one of the vaccines, one of the injections nosotros're giving, at the site of the wound is essentially neutralizing that virus if it's there, so the sooner, the meliorate.


updated: March x, 2021
originally published: July 22, 2016

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