Rabies

• Rabies Overview
• Rabies Causes
• Rabies Symptoms
• When to Seek Medical Care
• Exams and Tests
• Rabies Treatment
• Self-Care at Home
• Medical Treatment
• Medications
• Next Steps
• Follow-up
• Prevention
• Outlook
• For More Information
• Web Links
• Synonyms and Keywords
• Authors and Editors

Rabies Overview

Rabies is a disease humans may get from being bitten by an animal infected with the rabies virus. Rabies has been recognized for over 4,000 years. Yet, despite great advances in diagnosing and preventing it, today rabies is almost always deadly in humans who contract it and do not receive treatment.

Rabies can be totally prevented. You must recognize the exposure and promptly get appropriate medical care before you develop the symptoms of rabies.

• Where rabies is found: Human rabies is quite rare in the United States. Only 27 cases have been reported in people in the United States since 1990. Yet in some areas of the world (for example, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America), human rabies is much more common. The incidence of rabies in people parallels the incidence in the animal kingdom. The great strides that have been made in controlling the disease in animals in the United States and in other developed countries is directly responsible for this decline in human rabies.
  
  
  • Although rabies in humans is very rare in the United States, between 16,000 and 39,000 people receive preventive medical treatment each year after being exposed to a potentially rabid animal.
    
    
  • Some regions of the country have more cases of rabies than others do.
    
    
  • Rabies in wildlife accounts for greater than 85% of animal rabies in the United States.
  
  
• Animals that carry rabies: Raccoons are the most common wild animals infected with rabies in the United States. Skunks, foxes, bats, and coyotes are the other most frequently affected.
  
  
  • Bats are the most common animals responsible for the transmission of human rabies in the United States, accounting for more than half of human cases since 1980, and 74% since 1990. Rabid bats have been reported in all states except Hawaii.
    
    
  • Cats are the most common domestic animals with rabies in the United States. Dogs are the most common domestic rabid animals worldwide.
    
    
  • Almost any wild or domestic animal can potentially get rabies, but it is very rare in small rodents (rats, squirrels, chipmunks) and lagomorphs (rabbits and hares). Large rodents (beavers, woodchucks/groundhogs) have been found to have rabies in some areas of the United States.
    
    
  • Fish, reptiles, and birds are not known to carry the rabies virus.