If you come into contact with an animal you suspect has rabies, please seek medical treatment immediately. Rabies is often fatal if you do not get immediate help. The rabies virus travels to the brain by following the peripheral nerves. The incubation period of the disease is usually a few months in humans, depending on the distance the virus must travel to reach the central nervous system.[2] Once the rabies virus reaches the central nervous system and symptoms begin to show, the infection is effectively untreatable and usually fatal within days. 

Once the virus is in the central nervous system, the brain may swell and the person can die.

What Should You Do If You're Bitten?
If an animal ever bites or scratches you, tell an adult exactly what happened and ask the adult to help you take these steps to protect yourself:

  • Wash the wound with soap and water for 10 minutes.
  • Call your doctor or the hospital emergency department.
  • Give a description of the animal that bit you to your local animal control office so they can try to find the animal and test it for rabies. Your mom or dad can help you do this.

What Will the Doctor Do?
If someone goes to the doctor for an animal bite, the doctor will want to know:

  • What kind of animal bit you?
  • How did the animal act? (Rabid animals may look and act strangely.)
  • How do you feel now?

If a rabid animal bites someone, the disease will not develop right away. That's because there's an incubation period (say: in-kyuh-bay-shun) with rabies. That means there's a period of time between getting bitten and experiencing symptoms of rabies. With rabies, the incubation period may be a few days to several weeks or even a lot longer.

But doctors don't wait around when it comes to rabies. If there's a chance the person was bitten by a rabid animal, the doctor can give the person several shots to prevent the disease. Every year, about 40,000 people in the United States get these injections as a precaution. Shots are never fun, but they're much better than getting a deadly disease.

Protect Yourself From Rabies

The best way to protect yourself from getting infected with rabies is to never approach any stray or wild animals. Don't feed them or touch them, even if they look cute and friendly. A rabid animal may sometimes look tired or sick or even very angry. That's a sure sign to stay away!

Another important step is to have your pets vaccinated (say: vak-suh-nay-ted) by your veterinarian. The vet will give them shots so they can't catch rabies or give it to you or any other people or animals. Because of these vaccinations, almost no domesticated pets have rabies.

Also, keep outdoor trash cans carefully sealed, so they don't attract raccoons and other wild animals known to carry rabies. By closing your trash can, you'll be shutting the lid on rabies, too!

Other blog posts regarding rabies:
AZ rabies cases broke records in 2009