Rabies: How to Avoid It and What to Do After an Exposure

The main points

• About 100,000 Americans are vaccinated against rabies each year after a possible exposure.
• Know how you could be exposed and which animals are more likely to carry rabies.
• When traveling abroad, avoid wild animals.
• If you've been exposed to an animal that might have rabies, contact your health department right away.
• Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) means washing the wound, human rabies immune globulin and rabies vaccine.

Rabies in the United States

Americans are usually exposed through contact with infected wild animals, or when their pets meet a rabid animal. Common rabid animals include raccoons, skunks, bats and foxes. There are more than 100,000 potential exposures a year, yet thanks to prevention and access to PEP, fewer than 10 people die of rabies each year. Anyone exposed should seek medical care urgently.

Prevention

• Keep your distance from wildlife. Never approach animals that seem injured, sick or dead — especially night animals such as bats and raccoons out in the daytime. Call animal control instead.
• Vaccinate your pets and keep them away from wild animals.
• Traveling? Rabies in dogs is still common in many countries. Check whether rabies is present in dogs or wildlife at your destination, and avoid wild animals and unfamiliar dogs and cats.

When to get care

More than four million Americans report animal bites each year, and more than one million receive rabies-related care from health departments. Rabies vaccination is complex, expensive and often in short supply, so providers and public health staff must quickly assess each person to decide who needs it. Any mammal can get rabies, but some carry more risk; your health department can tell you whether to be vaccinated. People who need vaccine and don't get it before symptoms start will almost certainly die.

Rabies is completely preventable if you get help fast. After contact with wildlife or an unfamiliar animal — especially a bite or scratch:

1. Wash any wound right away with soap and water for 15 minutes.
2. Talk with a health care or public health professional about your risk and whether you need care.
3. Tell them what kind of animal it was, and whether it seemed to be acting strangely.
4. If it was someone's pet, ask the owner for proof that its rabies vaccination is up to date.

Not sure whether you had direct contact with a rabid animal? Ask your health department whether you need treatment. Rabies requires urgent attention.

For health care providers: rabies post-exposure prophylaxis.

Sources

Based on "Rabies Prevention and Control," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain. Its stock photograph is not reproduced.