Rabies

Rabies virus (RABV) is transmitted through direct contact (such as through broken skin or mucous membranes in your eyes, nose, or mouth) with saliva or brain/nervous system tissue from an infected animal. Rabies is fatal but preventable. It can spread to people and pets if they are bitten or scratched by a rabid animal.

What happens when you get rabies?

Rabies virus gets into your body when the saliva (spit) of an infected animal gets into an open wound (usually from a bite). It moves very slowly along nerves into your central nervous system (your brain and spinal cord). When it reaches your brain, the damage causes neurological symptoms. From there, rabies leads to coma and death.

How common is rabies?

About 59,000 people around the world die each year from rabies. In the U.S., human rabies cases are rare — fewer than three people get rabies each year. This is thanks to many people getting vaccinated soon after exposure.

Who does rabies affect?

Rabies is most common in rural parts of Asia and Africa, though it’s found on all continents except Antarctica. In the U.S., rabies is commonly found in wild animals. But dogs carry rabies in many other countries. Children are more likely to get rabies than adults.

How does rabies affect your body?

Rabies moves from an infected wound to your brain over time. There are several phases that most people go through: incubation, prodromal phase, acute neurologic phase and coma.

Incubation

Rabies virus can spend days to weeks in your body before it gets into your nervous system (incubation). You don’t have any symptoms during this time. If you receive treatment early in the incubation period, you won’t get rabies.

Prodromal phase

RABV travels through your nerve cells into your brain and spinal cord, causing nerve damage as it goes. The prodromal phase starts when the rabies virus has entered your nervous system. Your immune system tries to fight back, causing flu-like symptoms. Nerve damage might cause tingling, pain or numbness where you were bitten. This lasts two to 10 days. There aren’t any effective treatments when rabies reaches this phase.

Acute neurologic phase

In this phase, the rabies virus starts damaging your brain and spinal cord. About two-thirds of people have furious rabies, with symptoms like aggression, seizures and delirium. Others have paralytic rabies, with weakness and paralysis progressing from the bite wound to the rest of their body. Furious rabies can last a few days to a week. Paralytic rabies can last up to a month.

Coma

Many people enter a coma in the final stages of a rabies infection. Rabies eventually leads to death.