Information Frenzy丨The man was bitten on the 14th and died on the 19th. Is the rabies virus in Guangdong really that severe?

It is said online that a Guangdong woman died of rabies five days after being bitten? Let me talk about this case. The conclusion is three words: unreliable .

1. The incubation period is unreliable

The incubation period of rabies is generally 1 to 3 months . In a few patients, the incubation period may be less than 10 days. It only appears after head and face bites and severe bites. If it is just ordinary "bleeding", it is almost impossible, and you should consider previous exposure to the rabies virus.

Image source network

After all, it is not impossible for owners of free-range dogs to be exposed multiple times. At least judging from the exposure conditions and age, the patient did not have the conditions to die from exposure within 5 days.

It is worth mentioning that the "incubation period" of rabies in China may be the shortest in the world, because the "incubation period" appearing in domestic Chinese literature is 4 days, and the shortest "incubation period" appearing in English literature is 3 days, but these are data from surveys and interviews and have not been strictly verified .

2. Symptoms are unreliable

Although there are records of rashes in patients in the incubation period of rabies, the rabies virus itself does not cause a rash, nor does it cause an "immune system collapse." It simply invades the brain little by little along the nerves from exposed wounds, eventually leading to encephalitis and death.

Of course, if there are other skin diseases or immune diseases, it is a different matter, but it has nothing to do with rabies.

Some netizens questioned why the patient was still conscious before death. There is actually no need to question this, because the patient was conscious until death, but he was unable to express his feelings after serious symptoms appeared. However, he could clearly feel the pain. In other words, rabies would torture the patient to death while he was conscious .

3. The medical treatment process is unreliable

One comment mentioned that the "patient's" "sister" accompanied him to the hospital for treatment, but the doctor asked him to "go home and observe". This medical process was very strange.

Generally speaking, if you go to the hospital after being bitten by a dog, you should go to the dog bite clinic rather than the dermatology and venereology department . The former will perform post-exposure treatment, while the latter does not care about rabies (and you will not go to the dermatology department just because you suspect rabies is the cause), so it is very strange.

In addition, some people asked whether the "10-day observation method" is unreliable. In fact, it has been emphasized many times that the application of the 10-day observation method must meet at least one of the two conditions, namely, "the dog has been vaccinated with ≥2 doses of rabies vaccine (people do not need to be vaccinated)" or "people observe the dog while vaccinating (follow-up vaccines are not required for more than 10 days)", rather than just observing the dog directly after being bitten.

4. Regional Disposal

If the patient in the case is really diagnosed with rabies and is allowed to roam free, the area may conduct a certain range of dog capture and killing (usually stray dogs or free-range dogs), but there is no news on this at present.

5. Post-exposure management of rabies

Post-exposure management of rabies is very clear, namely:

①Cleaning the wound

② Vaccination, combined with immunoglobulin and tetanus products when necessary

③Complete the vaccination on time and observe the dog

It needs to be clarified that the vaccine will not "cause serious nerve damage" , but the rabies virus can cause serious harm to human life. Therefore, once you are bitten by a dog or cat and the animal's immunization history cannot be determined, you should go to the hospital as soon as possible for treatment. If there is no obvious bleeding wound, you should be vaccinated. If there is bleeding, you should be given passive immunization preparations (serum/immunoglobulin/monoclonal antibody) .

Finally, I want to say that many people hope that this incident is false, because they all want the blogger to survive, that’s all.

By the way, shouldn't free-range dogs be scolded? They harm both others and themselves.

May the world be free of epidemics

【pill】

Disclaimer: This article was created out of personal interest, only to help more ordinary people have a clearer understanding of vaccines. The content and views do not represent any organization, unit, or institution, and it has not accepted any form of sponsorship. All pictures are from public online platforms or depositphotos platforms that have paid for personal use rights. If the content is incorrect, please criticize yourself more (not).