| Rabies Rumor Inoculation Rabies is a big scary disease—so big and scary that in approximately 15 years, the entire population of the United States will have become infected and have died. This is not true! Actually, what is truly scary, is the fact that sentiments like this myth have been circulating for years, and still do today! These are the real facts on rabies: |
| It is not easy for humans to become infected with rabies. Rabies is transmitted by the wet saliva of an infected animal. This transfer usually happens via a bite, or the animal licking an opening into the body: a wound, or a mucus membrane. That’s it! In a nutshell: infected saliva + opening to the body = rabies transfer. There are only a few cases in which rabies has been transmitted any other way, all of which involve highly unusual circumstances. But, when it comes to public protection, the definition of human exposure to rabies changes to any bare-skinned contact. Never handle a rabies-vector species animal with your bare hands, or rabies tests will be necessary! Rabid animals are not driven to attack or to bite humans. Animals with rabies do not turn into bloodthirsty werewolves! As in the case of most animals, bites result from accidental encounters. In the early stages of rabies, the infected animal behaves nearly normally. In later stages, the animal suffers from excruciating fever, headache, and thirst, along with throat constrictions that keep them from drinking. It may become more aggressive, but generally the animal just wants to find a quiet, cool place to die—not a drink of human blood. Rabies infects only mammals. You don’t have to worry about getting rabies from birds, snakes, turtles, salamanders, or any other non-mammalian animal. More Rabies Rumors |
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