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Category: Health published by Syed Qayam Ali Published on: April 14, 2019, 2:13 pm EST Update: April 14, 2019, 2:13 pm EST
Washington: A new study has highlighted the importance of raising awareness of the rising risk of rabies and advised to see a doctor on time. According to the study, people wait an average of 10 days before seeking medical advice after exposure to potentially rabid animals abroad.
The study was discussed at the ECCMID 2019 meeting and was presented this year at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in April, which indicates that the deadline way to search for post-bat treatment in the UK was almost three days.
"The findings underscore the importance of raising public awareness of the risks of rabies, both for travelers visiting rabies-infected countries and for UK exposures with bats," said the report. one of the researchers of the Health Service Against Rabies and Immunoglobulins ">> Public Health in England.
Symptoms usually take 2 to 3 months to develop, but can develop in just a week (following a bite to the head) or up to several years after exposure. "Preventive treatments are 100% effective if they are administered soon after exposure," said the researcher.
"That's why it's so important to seek care quickly, even if the injury or incident seems very trivial. If you are bitten, scratched or licked by an animal, you should wash the wound or the exposure site with soapy water and consult a doctor immediately. Travelers should be quick to wait for treatment, "added the researcher.
Rabies is a zoonotic infection (a disease that is transmitted from animals to humans) that can cause a rare but potentially fatal infection of the brain and nervous system in humans. It usually results from a bite, scratch or lick of an infected animal. It is estimated that the virus kills an estimated 59,000 people each year worldwide, most often as a result of a dog bite enraged in parts of Africa and Asia.
Rabies does not circulate in wild or domestic animals; although some bat species may be carriers of rabies-like viruses (Lyssaviruses of European Type 1 and Type 2 bats). Every year, about 150 people in England are treated after being bitten by a bat.
People who think they have been exposed to rabies are advised to immediately seek medical treatment including a series of rabies vaccines, with or without immunoglobulin, with antibody therapy providing immediate short-term protection while the vaccines begin to work.
In this study, medical staff from one of Manchester's transmitter centers, in northwestern England, reviewed all requests for post-exposure rabies treatment in his lab between June 2015 and June 2018.
A total of 200 patients (aged 0 to 77 years) received post-exposure therapy through the virology laboratory. More than a third (69/200 patients) were aged 20 to 29 years. The vast majority of patients (92%; 183/200) had never been vaccinated against rabies.
The results showed that more than three quarters (79% (157/200) of post-exposure treatments) were administered to travelers returning to the United Kingdom from 43 different countries.
As part of separate research, Health Physicians'> Public Health England found that the number of post-exposure risk badessments conducted in England since 2001 was multiplied by 7.5 from 390 in 2001 to 2949 in 2018 – dog bites in South and Southeast Asia, while about 1 in 10 were bat bites in England.
In the UK, although prompt treatment is recommended, given the prolonged incubation period, it is never considered too late to receive post-exposure treatment.
Source: ANI
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