The behavior of animals is often unpredictable, and careless interaction with them can result in bites. Most often, victims consult a doctor with dog bites. In most cases, the culprits of the incident are other people's dogs, but pets often get their teeth into their owner.
According to statistics, dog bites account for more than 90% of all animal bites. According to unofficial data, in Moscow alone, about 35 thousand people suffer from dog bites every year. It is very important to remember about infection prevention and to get tetanus and rabies vaccinations if you are bitten.
1 Dog bite. First aid
2 Dog bite. First aid
3 Dog bite. First aid
Types of bites
As a result of an attack by a dog (as well as other animals), both superficial and lacerated bites can occur.
With a superficial bite, the dog only pierces the skin with its teeth, and a puncture wound appears.
With a lacerated dog bite, not only more serious damage is observed, but also greater blood loss.
Most often, the dog tries to bite the following parts of the body: forearms, palms, thighs and ankles. When bitten by dogs, in addition to wounds and scratches, damage to tendons, blood vessels and nerves may occur.
Children's shoulders and face may be injured when attacked by “four-legged friends.” But it is especially dangerous when a dog bite hits the head or neck area. This can lead to internal bleeding, open and depressed skull fractures, and in some cases, death.
Symptoms of a dog bite
The main symptoms of a bite are bleeding and pain. If therapeutic measures are not taken, the wound may become infected.
Pay attention to the following signs of infection:
- increased body temperature;
- swollen lymph nodes;
- attacks of fever;
- swelling of the wound, pain and burning sensation in it.
The consequences of a bite from a dog, as well as from a cat and other animals, can be rabies and tetanus. Therefore, it is important to immediately seek help from a traumatologist at the nearest emergency room.
Laboratory diagnostics
Rice. 22. Basic methods of laboratory diagnosis of rabies.
Viroscopy, serological and biological methods are the main methods for diagnosing the disease. The brains of people and animals who died of rabies, saliva and tissue of the salivary glands are subject to research.
Rice. 23. The photo shows rabies viruses under a microscope. In appearance they resemble a bullet.
The indirect fluorescent antibody method is the most accurate and rapid method for diagnosing rabies. Its effectiveness reaches 100%. If positive results are obtained, the use of other diagnostic methods is not required.
Rice. 24. In the photo, in smears of biological material treated with rabies immunoglobulin labeled with FITC, virus antigens appearing in the form of green granules are observed. In different animals and humans they have different shapes and sizes.
Rice. 25. The photo shows a histological specimen of brain tissue. Cytoplasmic inclusions are visible - Babes-Negri bodies. The internal granularity of the inclusions represents viral particles associated with cellular elements.
Cytoplasmic inclusions of the Babes-Negri body are strictly specific for rabies disease.
To diagnose rabies, a bioassay on mice is used. The presence of viruses in them is confirmed by the indirect method of fluorescent antibodies or the detection of Babes-Negri bodies during histological examination. To determine the development of post-vaccination immunity, serological research methods are used.
The prognosis for rabies is unfavorable. The disease always ends in the death of humans and animals.
What is rabies?
Rabies (or rabies, from the Latin word rabies, hydrophobia, fear of water) is an acute infectious disease resulting from the bite of a dog or other infected animal, which is characterized by severe damage to the nervous system and usually ends in death.
The danger of rabies was known in ancient times, but there were no treatment methods, and every victim was doomed to death.
Only the great French scientist Louis Pasteur managed to create a vaccine against rabies (rabies vaccine) in 1885. On July 6, 1885, he saved the life of a 15-year-old teenager who was bitten by a rabid dog.
How does rabies become infected?
The causative agent of rabies is the Neuroiyctes rabid virus, which contains a single strand of RNA. The virus is resistant to freezing, antibiotics and phenol, drying, and direct sunlight. Destroyed by heat, acids and alkalis.
When a dog (or other animal) bites, infection occurs as a result of saliva from a rabid animal entering the wound. Once under the skin, the rabies virus quickly reaches the central and peripheral nervous systems. The rate of spread of the disease depends on the location of the wound (the higher the bite site, the faster the infection), the depth and size of the wound, and the reactogenicity of the human body (i.e., the susceptibility of the nervous system to a given pathogen).
1 Dog bite. First aid
2 Dog bite. First aid
3 Dog bite. First aid
Symptoms of rabies
The incubation period lasts from 1 to 3 months (sometimes from 12 days to a year). The speed of spread is influenced by the location of the bite.
There are 3 stages of the disease: initial (depression), stage of excitement, stage of paralysis.
Stage 1 of rabies:
- unpleasant sensations at the site of the bite with irradiation to the center, itching, hyperesthesia of the skin, although the wound may already have healed;
- sometimes inflammation reappears at the wound site, the scar becomes red and swollen;
- if the bite is on the face, then olfactory and visual hallucinations are observed;
- general weakness, headaches;
- nervousness and irritability;
- disruption of the gastrointestinal tract (decreased appetite, nausea, vomiting);
- constant increase in temperature to 37-37.5 degrees;
- disruption of the nervous system (sadness, fear, anxiety, apathy, nightmares);
- severe sensitivity of vision and hearing (ordinary sound or light begins to interfere).
Stage 2 of rabies - agitation (lasts from 2 to 4 days):
- the appearance of anxiety, increased heart rate;
- difficulty breathing and swallowing;
- the appearance and intensification of hydrophobia (fear is caused by the splashing, murmur, transfusion of water, its appearance, etc.);
- fear of light, loud sounds, open air (accompanied by muscle spasms and twitching, breathing problems);
- convulsions;
- attacks of aggression (a person scratches, bites, spits, fights, hits walls);
- disturbance of reason (appearance of delusional ideas, visual and auditory hallucinations).
After the attack passes, the person calms down and feels good.
Stage 3 rabies:
Symptoms of rabies at the stage of paralysis are associated with loss of activity of the subcortical formations and cerebral cortex, manifested in a weakening of sensory and motor functions.
The attacks stop. Body temperature rises to 40-42 degrees, hypotension and tachycardia appear. Death can occur within a day due to paralysis or cardiac arrest.
Who is at risk?
- People who have been bitten by wild or domestic animals;
- People living in rural areas and keeping animals at home that have not been vaccinated against rabies;
- People who travel to developing countries (Southeast Asia, Africa);
- People who go outdoors and come into contact with wild animals (raccoons, foxes, bats, etc.);
- Trappers and hunters;
- Veterinarians;
- People who work in nurseries, zoos, animal shelters;
- People who work with the rabies virus in the laboratory.
First aid
When a person has reason to believe that they may have contracted rabies, they should immediately consult a doctor. But it is equally important to provide yourself with first aid, as well as take care of safety. This is especially true in cases where the victim was bitten by a pet, which became a carrier of a dangerous virus.
Immediately after the bite you need to do the following:
- Call an ambulance or choose the nearest medical facility (trauma center).
- Tie up your pet, isolating it from surrounding people and animals, or call the sanitary service through the rescue phone.
- Wash the wound with clean water and laundry soap, trying to cause heavy bleeding to remove the virus from the blood, and go to the hospital.
- Once the doctor has taken all the necessary measures, you should definitely show your pet to a veterinarian when returning home.
You can identify rabies in pets yourself. However, this can only be done after the active development of the disease begins, and the carrier becomes infectious about a week before. Therefore, in some cases, you can catch the virus even from an apparently healthy pet. Nevertheless, the symptoms will help identify a guaranteed sick animal. These include:
- Desire to chew or scratch where another animal has bitten you;
- Dilated pupils, eating inedible objects;
- Increased salivation, foam at the mouth and vomiting;
- Severe hydrophobia (not experienced by everyone);
- Aggressive behavior, attempts to run away from home.
Knowing exactly how people become infected with rabies will help many people protect themselves. If symptoms can be detected in a pet before direct contact with it, then it must be urgently transferred to veterinarians, taking special care during transportation, because any attack from him would be extremely dangerous. After confirming the diagnosis of the animal, you should throw away all its toys that may have saliva on them.
If a sick animal manages to bite a person, then under no circumstances should you treat the wound with an alcohol solution, iodine or antiseptics, and it is strictly forbidden to drink alcoholic beverages.
Infection
The rabies virus can enter the body unnoticed. The starting point is the place through which the infection occurred. From there, the virus begins to spread, approaching the brain. In parallel with this, its cells actively multiply, increasing their efficiency. Every hour they rise higher, and the patient’s body experiences new problems. After some time, damage to the brain and spinal cord occurs, and the central nervous system ceases to function fully.
Infection at points close to the head is especially dangerous. This is because the time required to reach the brain will be very limited. As a result, doctors may not have time to take all necessary measures to prevent the development of the virus in the infected person’s body, which will make death inevitable.
The main carriers of the virus are wild animals and livestock: foxes, wolves, hedgehogs, badgers, raccoons, rodents, sheep, cows, pigs, goats and some other species. You can also get infected from a cat or dog, and most of the diseases have been registered in the case of the latter. Everyone knows how rabies is transmitted from dogs to humans. This happens through a bite. They can also become infected from other animals.
The virus is contained in the salivary glands, where it enters 1-7 days before the first symptoms appear, and spreads best when it enters the blood of a healthy body. That is why, after being bitten by a sick animal, you should not hesitate. Other routes of infection cannot be excluded:
- Damage to the skin from the claws of a sick animal;
- Contact of damaged skin with an object containing saliva from a sick animal;
- Contact with saliva on the mucous membranes of the eyes, nose or mouth;
- Cutting up the carcass of an animal with rabies;
- Airborne (when in a cave with sick bats).
The virus can also be transmitted to the fetus from an infected mother during pregnancy or to people during internal organ transplantation, but only isolated cases have been reported. Is rabies transmitted from person to person in everyday life? Theoretically, you can become infected through a kiss if a healthy person has wounds in his mouth. However, the probability of transmission of the virus from person to other people is so small that the vast majority of experts tend to consider it zero.
More than 50 thousand people die from rabies every year, and most cases of infection occur in the spring and summer months.
Treatment
The doctor’s first task is to conduct an urgent diagnosis. In some cases, an examination and knowledge that the person was bitten by a stray or wild animal is sufficient. Sometimes blood may be taken from the victim to conduct a minimal test, or the lining of the eye may be examined. After this, treatment is prescribed. You need to start it right away, because... When the first symptoms appear, the probability of death is one hundred percent, even with the use of all drugs.
The patient is started to be injected with a special drug “KOKAV” according to a certain scheme: day 0, day 3, day 7, day 14, day 30 and day 90. The injection is given in the deltoid muscle, and in young children the vaccine is administered through the thigh. The dosage is only 1 ml. When the course of treatment is completed, the victim will develop immunity to rabies, which will last for one year.
Sometimes it is additionally necessary to use another method of treatment. To do this, the patient is injected with rabies immunoglobulin into the wound area or buttock. However, it is used in practice quite rarely, because its use is required only in particularly severe cases. Administration schedule: day 0, day 3, day 7, day 14 and day 28.
For the period of treatment and the next six months of life, patients are prohibited from drinking alcohol, overwork, visiting the bathhouse, and getting hypothermic. If you follow all the rules and take medications, you will soon be able to start living the same way as before.
You can protect yourself with pre-exposure vaccination. However, doctors do not recommend doing this, because... This need exists only for people at risk (veterinarians, travelers, pathologists).
In 2005, doctors in the United States were able to cure a girl of rabies by putting her into a long-term artificial coma. This success is explained by the fact that the virus has only a temporary effect, after which it ceases to affect the infected person.
