Animal Bites and Rabies

What is Rabies?

Rabies is a serious disease that is caused by a virus. Each year, rabies kills more than 50,000 people and millions of animals around the world.  Nerve cells are the targets of the rabies virus.  Nerve cells are one part of the body’s nervous system. The rabies virus infects the body usually through a bite from a rabid animal. Once inside the body, the virus travels along the peripheral nerves (the nerves that run throughout the body). Its main target is the central nervous system, which is made up of the brain and spinal cord. Rabies develops in two stages. During the first stage, which can last up to 10 days, the individual may have a headache, fever, decreased appetite, vomiting, and general malaise, along with pain, itching, and tingling at the wound site. Symptoms of stage two include difficulty in swallowing, agitation, disorientation, paralysis, and coma. At this point, there is no known, effective treatment.

People who develop a rabies infection often have a history of being bitten by an animal about a month before rabies symptoms began. Any mammal can get rabies. Raccoons, skunks, foxes, bats, dogs, and cats can get rabies. Cattle and humans can also get rabies.  Animals that are not mammals -- such as birds, snakes, and fish -- do not get rabies.   Rabies is a disease that affects only mammals (such as raccoons, bats, dogs, horses, and humans).