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Diseases » Rabies » Symptoms

Symptoms of Rabies



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Symptoms of Rabies

The list of signs and symptoms mentioned in various sources for Rabies includes the 69 symptoms listed below:

Research symptoms & diagnosis of Rabies:

Rabies: Complications

Review medical complications possibly associated with Rabies:

Research More About Rabies

Do I have Rabies?

Rabies: Undiagnosed Conditions

Diseases that may be commonly undiagnosed in related medical areas:

Home Diagnostic Testing

Home medical tests related to Rabies:

Wrongly Diagnosed with Rabies?

The list of other diseases or medical conditions that may be on the differential diagnosis list of alternative diagnoses for Rabies includes:

See the full list of 8 alternative diagnoses for Rabies

Rabies: Research Doctors & Specialists

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More about symptoms of Rabies:

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Other Possible Causes of these Symptoms

Click on any of the symptoms below to see a full list of other causes including diseases, medical conditions, toxins, drug interactions, or drug side effect causes of that symptom.

Medical Books Online about Rabies

Medical Books Excerpts Excerpts of published medical book chapters related to Rabies are available from published medical books for more detailed information about Rabies.

Medical Books Excerpts

Rabies

  • "Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition)" (2005)

Phobias

  • "Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition)" (2005)

Rabies

  • "Handbook of Diseases" (2003)

Phobias

  • "Handbook of Diseases" (2003)

Rabies

  • "The 5-Minute Pediatric Consult" (2008)

Copyright notice for book excerpts: Copyright © 2008 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. All rights reserved.

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Patient Surveys for Rabies

Symptoms of Rabies: Online Medical Books

16 MEDICAL BOOKS ONLINE! Review excerpts from medical books online, free, without registration, for more information about the symptoms of Rabies.


Rabies: Signs and Symptoms
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))

Pain, burning, fever, malaise, headache, anorexia, nausea, sore throat, irritability, photophobia, sensitivity to noise, pupillary dilation, salivation, lacrimation, perspiration, hydrophobia, cranial nerve dysfunction

» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »

Source: Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition), 2005

Phobias: Signs and symptoms
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))

The phobic patient typically reports signs of severe anxiety when confronted with the feared object or situation. A patient with agoraphobia, for example, may complain of dizziness, a sensation of falling, a feeling of unreality (depersonalization), loss of bladder or bowel control, vomiting, or cardiac distress when he leaves home or crosses a bridge. Similarly, a patient who fears flying may report that he begins to sweat, his heart pounds, and he feels panicky and short of breath when he’s on an airplane.

A patient who routinely avoids the object of his phobia may report a loss of self-esteem and feelings of weakness, cowardice, or ineffectiveness. If he hasn’t mastered the phobia, he may also exhibit signs of mild depression.

» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »

Source: Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition), 2005

Rabies: Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)

Signs and symptoms are progressive.

Local and prodromal symptoms

Typically, after an incubation period of 1 to 3 months, rabies produces local or radiating pain or burning, a sensation of cold, pruritus, and tingling at the bite site. It also produces prodromal signs and symptoms, such as a slight fever (100° to 102° F [37.8° to 38.9° C]), malaise, headache, anorexia, nausea, sore throat, and persistent loose cough.

After this, the patient begins to show nervousness, anxiety, irritability, hyperesthesia, photophobia, sensitivity to loud noises, pupillary dilation, tachycardia, shallow respirations, and excessive salivation, lacrimation, and perspiration.

Excitation and hydrophobia

Between 2 and 10 days after onset of prodromal symptoms, a phase of excitation begins. It’s characterized by agitation, marked restlessness, anxiety, apprehension, and cranial nerve dysfunction that causes ocular palsies, strabismus, asymmetrical pupillary dilation or constriction, absence of corneal reflexes, weakness of facial muscles, and hoarseness. Severe systemic signs and symptoms include tachycardia or bradycardia, cyclic respirations, urine retention, and a temperature of about 103° F (39.4° C).

About 50% of affected patients exhibit hydrophobia (literally, “fear of water”), during which forceful, painful pharyngeal muscle spasms expel liquids from the mouth and cause dehydration, and possibly apnea, cyanosis, and death. Difficulty swallowing causes frothy saliva to drool from the patient’s mouth.

Eventually, even the sight, mention, or thought of water causes uncontrollable pharyngeal muscle spasms and excessive salivation. Between episodes of excitation and hydrophobia, the patient commonly is cooperative and lucid.

Terminal phase

After about 3 days, excitation and hydrophobia subside and the progressively paralytic, terminal phase of this illness begins. The patient experiences gradual, generalized, flaccid paralysis that ultimately leads to peripheral vascular collapse, coma, and death.

» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »

Source: Handbook of Diseases, 2003

Phobias: Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)

The phobic patient typically reports signs of severe anxiety when confronted with the feared object or situation. A patient with agoraphobia, for example, may complain of dizziness, a sensation of falling, a feeling of unreality (depersonalization), loss of bladder or bowel control, vomiting, or cardiac distress when he leaves home or crosses a bridge. Similarly, a patient who fears flying may report that he begins to sweat, his heart pounds, and he feels panicky and short of breath when he’s on an airplane.

A patient who routinely avoids the object of his phobia may report a loss of self-esteem and feelings of weakness, cowardice, or ineffectiveness. If he hasn’t mastered the phobia, he may also exhibit signs of mild depression, such as self-medicating with alcohol or drugs.

» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »

Source: Handbook of Diseases, 2003

Rabies: Rabies - signs & symptoms
(The 5-Minute Pediatric Consult)

  • Prodrome: 2–10 days with vague and insidious symptoms (e.g., sore throat, malaise, anxiety, depression, fever, nausea). A fairly specific prodromal symptom is itching, pain, or tingling at the site of the bite.
  • Acute neurologic phase: Furious (80%) versus paralytic (20%) rabies
    • Furious rabies: Agitation, hyperactivity, bizarre behavior, nuchal rigidity, sore throat, and hoarseness. The pathognomonic sign is hydrophobia and, at times, aerophobia.
    • Paralytic rabies: Initial finding flaccid is paralysis in the limb that was bitten; subsequently spreads to other limbs. Cranial nerve involvement can give complete lack of facial affect.
    • Coma: Onset follows acute neurologic phase; may persist up to 2 weeks and is followed by death almost universally.

» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »

Source: The 5-Minute Pediatric Consult, 2008

Article Excerpts About Symptoms of Rabies:

Rabies, NIAID Fact Sheet: NIAID (Excerpt)

The doctor will suspect rabies if someone has symptoms such as:

  • A short period of mental depression,
  • Restlessness,
  • Abnormal sensations such as itching around the site of the bite,
  • Headache,
  • Fever,
  • Tiredness,
  • Nausea,
  • Sore throat, or
  • Loss of appetite.
Other early symptoms include:
  • Stiff muscles,
  • Dilation (enlargement) of pupils of the eye,
  • Increased production of saliva, and
  • Unusual sensitivity to sound, light, and changes of temperature.
If the disease has progressed, a person will have episodes of irrational excitement which alternate with periods of alert calm. Convulsions are common. Most dramatic of all are the severe and extremely painful throat spasms suffered by the person when trying to swallow – or even upon seeing – liquids. This reaction to water, sometimes seen as a fear of it, is typical in people with rabies and gives the disease its medical name, hydrophobia.

A person usually dies from cardiac or respiratory failure within a week after the appearance of rabies symptoms, while the excited state is most prominent. If the patient survives this stage, muscle spasms and agitation stop, only to be replaced by a growing paralysis leading to death.

In human rabies resulting from the bite of a rabid vampire bat, excitement and hydrophobia are usually not present and paralysis usually starts in the legs and moves upward.

Once symptoms appear, the only treatment is strong support to help the person feel more comfortable. This support includes controlling the symptoms in the respiratory, circulatory, and central nervous systems.

People do not recover and eventually die from the infection. (Source: excerpt from Rabies, NIAID Fact Sheet: NIAID)

Rabies, NIAID Fact Sheet: NIAID (Excerpt)

Early signs of rabies in animals include a change in behavior, fever, loss of appetite, and often, a change in phonation, such as a change in tone of a dog's bark. These signs are often slight, however, and people may not notice them. A few days after infection, the animal may be very restlessness and become very agitated and tremble. An affected dog may growl and bark constantly, and will viciously attack any moving object, person, or animal it comes across. This excited state usually lasts three to seven days, and is followed by convulsions and paralysis.

In some instances, signs of excitement and irritability are slight or absent, and paralysis develops within a few days of disease onset. In cases of this type, an early sign is often paralysis of the lower jaw, accompanied by increased drooling and foaming of saliva. The animal may appear to be choking on a foreign object. This is a dangerous trap for humans, who, in trying to help the animal, may expose themselves to infection without knowing it. (Source: excerpt from Rabies, NIAID Fact Sheet: NIAID)

Rabies as a Cause of Symptoms or Medical Conditions

When considering symptoms of Rabies, it is also important to consider Rabies as a possible cause of other medical conditions. The Disease Database lists the following medical conditions that Rabies may cause:

- (Source - Diseases Database)

Rabies: Onset and Incubation

Incubation period for Rabies: Typically 30-50 days after exposure; as fast as 14 days for a severe bite or multiple bites; a year or longer is rare but possible.

Incubation period for Rabies: When symptoms do appear, it is usually 30 to 50 days following exposure. There is a direct relationship between how severe the bite is and where on the body the person bitten and how long it takes for symptoms to appear. For example, if a person's head is severely bitten, symptoms may show up in as few as 14 days. Under rare conditions, a person may not have symptoms for a year or longer after exposure to the virus. (Source: excerpt from Rabies, NIAID Fact Sheet: NIAID)

Medical articles and books on symptoms:

These general reference articles may be of interest in relation to medical signs and symptoms of disease in general:

Full list of premium articles on symptoms and diagnosis

About signs and symptoms of Rabies:

The symptom information on this page attempts to provide a list of some possible signs and symptoms of Rabies. This signs and symptoms information for Rabies has been gathered from various sources, may not be fully accurate, and may not be the full list of Rabies signs or Rabies symptoms. Furthermore, signs and symptoms of Rabies may vary on an individual basis for each patient. Only your doctor can provide adequate diagnosis of any signs or symptoms and whether they are indeed Rabies symptoms.


 » Next page: Diagnostic Tests for Rabies

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