Rabies

Rabies has been a much-feared disease affecting humans and animals since antiquity due to its near-uniform fatality once symptoms appear. Following an incubation period ranging from a few days to a few years, rabies presents with a vague, febrile illness, frequently with pain and paresthesias at the wound site. Within 2 weeks, the neurological phase typically progresses into encephalitic or paralytic rabies, followed by coma. Death typically occurs within 2 to 3 days of coma onset. Once symptoms begin, treatment typically focuses on minimizing the patient's pain and suffering. In resource-poor countries, many individuals die at home. Rabies (RABV) and other similar viruses are zoonotic, neurotropic viruses belonging to the family Rhabdoviridae, genus . These viruses cause indistinguishable clinical illnesses. Rabies is distributed worldwide, infecting various mammals, including dogs, cats, bats, livestock, and wildlife. The RABV is transmitted through the saliva of infected animals, contaminating bites, open skin, or mucous membrane, and, in rare cases, through organ transplantation. Dog bites account for 99% of rabies cases, making dogs the primary reservoir worldwide. Human rabies is rare in resource-rich countries but remains a significant public health concern in resource-limited regions, causing tens of thousands of deaths annually. The burden is highest in Asia and Africa, primarily affecting children in areas without large-scale preventive measures. All suspected and confirmed human and animal rabies cases must be reported to the appropriate hospital infection prevention and control programs, local public health authorities, or animal health authorities. Clinicians often overlook the diagnosis of rabies at the initial presentation. Preventing rabies is crucial, as treatment options after symptoms appear are mostly limited to palliative care. Following exposure, rabies postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) should be administered urgently, especially in deep or multiple bites in areas with dense nerve endings, such as the hands or regions close to the central nervous system (CNS), including the head and neck. PEP includes thorough wound cleansing, the administration of multiple cell culture-derived rabies vaccines, and human rabies immunoglobulin (HRIg) if the patient has not received prior rabies vaccination. Preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is available for individuals likely to be exposed to the RABV, such as veterinarians and long-term travelers or residents in endemic countries. Clinicians must be familiar with local guidelines to determine appropriate PEP, as animal carriers, the prevalence of rabies, and the availability of vaccines and HRIg vary by region. In the United States, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) developed national human rabies prevention guidelines with support from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in 2008, updating them in 2010 to reduce the number of vaccines required for PEP. Local or state public health authorities develop guidelines specific to the region. The World Health Organization (WHO) revised its 2010 rabies vaccine position paper in 2018 to improve programmatic feasibility, simplify vaccination schedules, and improve cost-effectiveness. The opportunity to provide appropriate postexposure rabies prophylaxis may be missed due to patient, clinician, or structural factors. Patients may be unaware that a specific exposure carries a risk or may not realize they were bitten, especially in cases of bat bites. Clinicians may be unaware of the local rabies epidemiology where the bite occurred or appropriate pre- or postexposure treatment. On the systemic level, a lack of PEP availability due to geographic factors or the prohibitively high cost of PEP results in lost opportunities for treatment. Mass dog vaccination is the most cost-effective strategy for preventing dog-mediated human rabies worldwide. In its 2017 global strategic plan, the United Against Rabies coalition, in collaboration with the WHO and other global animal and human health organizations, aims to eliminate human rabies by 2030. This activity reviews PrEP and PEP, the diagnosis and treatment of clinical rabies, public health management of rabies cases, and rabies control. Please see StatPearls' companion resource, "Animal Bites," for further information.