Treatments for Rabies

Treatment list for Rabies:

The list of treatments mentioned in various sources for Rabies includes the following list. Always seek professional medical advice about any treatment or change in treatment plans.

• Human rabies immunoglobulin (HRIG) shots - a form of rapid passive immunization; used before starting rabies shots.
• Rabies vaccine shots - active immunization; typically a series of 5 shots; there are various types of rabies shots.
  • Human diploid cell vaccine (HDCV)
  • Rabies vaccine adsorbed (RVA)
  • Purified chick embryo cell culture (PCEC)
• Intensive care
• Respiratory support
• Cardiac support
• Symptomatic and supportive treatments
• See also prevention of rabies for measures to take after an animal bite or possible rabies exposure

Treatments of Rabies: Online Medical Books

16 MEDICAL BOOKS ONLINE! Review the full text of medical books online, free, without registration, for more information about the treatments of Rabies.

Rabies: Treatment (Tx)
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))

Rabies immune globulin

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Rabies: Treatment
(Handbook of Diseases)

The patient requires wound treatment and immunization as soon as possible after exposure.

Thoroughly wash all bite wounds and scratches with soap and water. (See First aid in animal bites.)

Check the patient’s immunization status, and administer tetanus-diphtheria prophylaxis, if needed. Take measures to control bacterial infection. If the wound requires suturing, special treatment and suturing techniques must be used to allow proper wound drainage.

CLINICAL TIP: If the wound is sutured, antiserum may be infiltrated locally.

After rabies exposure, a patient who hasn’t been previously immunized must receive passive immunization with rabies immune globulin and active immunization with human diploid cell vaccine as soon as possible. If the patient previously received the vaccine and has an adequate rabies antibody titer, he doesn’t need immune globulin immunization, just a vaccine booster.

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Medical news summaries about treatments for Rabies:

The following medical news items are relevant to treatment of Rabies:

• Rabies kills 30,000 people in India each year

Discussion of treatments for Rabies:

Rabies, NIAID Fact Sheet: NIAID (Excerpt)

If you have been bitten or scratched by any animal, you should:

• Clean the wound immediately with soap and water to remove saliva from the area,
• Call a doctor right away, and
• Notify the state or local health department.

If soap is not available, for example, when hiking, you can use water alone. But be sure to wash with soap and water as soon as possible. Allow the wound to bleed, which also will help to clean it.

There are situations in which it is possible that a person has had close contact with a bat and not known it, as when a sleeping person awakens to find a bat in the room. Therefore, CDC now recommends that people seek medical help even if they can't see a bat bite or scratch, or may have had mucous membrane exposure. (Mucous membranes include the linings of the eyes, mouth, and nose.)

The possibility of getting rabies from rodents, including squirrels, is small. If you have been bitten by one, however, you should still consult a doctor right away.

In fact, you should avoid contact with any wild animal. (Source: excerpt from Rabies, NIAID Fact Sheet: NIAID)

Rabies, NIAID Fact Sheet: NIAID (Excerpt)

If a doctor decides that you probably have been exposed to rabies, post-exposure (after a being bitten) rabies shots should begin at once, preferably within 24 to 48 hours of exposure. In fact, many experts recommend that treatment should be started even if the delay is much longer than that.

The first treatment, sometimes called passive immunization, provides immediate but temporary protection by injecting antibodies (disease-fighting proteins or immunoglobulins) into the patient. Currently, CDC recommends treating a patient immediately with one dose of human rabies immunoglobulin (HRIG) shots.

After the first treatment, CDC recommends that patients be given a rabies shot, which starts the body producing its own antibodies. It takes some time for the body to produce the antibodies, but these antibodies provide longer-lasting protection. Because rabies has an unusually long incubation period, however, the body has time to respond to the vaccine and produce protective antibodies.

There are now three types of rabies vaccines, all of which are made from killed rabies virus:

• Human diploid cell vaccine (HDCV),
• Rabies vaccine adsorbed (RVA), and
• Purified chick embryo cell culture (PCEC).

After possible exposure to the rabies virus, the doctor will give you five shots with one of these vaccines into your upper arm muscle over a four-week period. The vaccines can cause mild reactions such as swelling or redness at the vaccine site, headache, fever, nausea, muscle aches, and dizziness.

If you are a veterinarian, animal caretaker, laboratory worker, cave explorer, or forest ranger, or are often involved in other activities which put you in high risk of being bitten by an animal, health specialists recommend that you get pre-exposure shots with a rabies vaccine. You should get these shots in three injections over four weeks.

If you are traveling to areas where rabies is not well-controlled, such as parts of Africa, Asia, and Central and South America, and where the vaccine for post-exposure treatment might not be readily available, you should also get the pre-exposure shots. Then, if you do come in contact with the rabies virus, then the post-exposure regimen would require only two booster injections.

People with continuing risk of exposure should receive a booster about every two years.

You can get more detailed information on pre- and post-exposure rabies shots from your local health department or from CDC (see the last section). (Source: excerpt from Rabies, NIAID Fact Sheet: NIAID)

Facts About Rabies: CDC-OC (Excerpt)

If you are bitten or scratched by any animal wash the wound thoroughly with soap and water as soon as possible, and notify animal control or the health department. If you come into contact with a bat (e.g., awake to find one in your room or see one near an unattended child or mentally challenged or intoxicated person), contact a doctor immediately. Again, notify animal control or the health department. (Source: excerpt from Facts About Rabies: CDC-OC)

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