How many years can rabies remain dormant?

Rabies is a disease that can lurk in the body for many years and then suddenly break out. Most of the patients are children. Children are easily bitten by animals when they play. After being bitten, the elderly in the family don’t pay much attention and don’t take care of it, which eventually leads to rabies. We need to understand the incubation period of rabies and its transmission.

What is the longest incubation period of rabies?

Rabies is a zoonotic infectious disease. When a person is bitten or scratched by an infected animal, the animal's rabies virus enters the human body through the wound, gradually damaging the central nervous system and causing the disease. There are many different opinions about the incubation period of rabies, and it is difficult to have a definite time period.

The vast majority of rabies patients develop a rapid course of disease over a short period of time, so timely treatment is key. Experts say that under normal circumstances, the incubation period of rabies is about 10 days to 3 months, and in very rare cases the incubation period is more than 10 years.

Like most viral infectious diseases, infection with the rabies virus does not necessarily lead to the onset of rabies. There are two conditions for the onset of rabies:

1. Diseased animals. If a person is bitten or scratched by an animal carrying rabies, the chance of infection is high.

2. Virus quantity and virulence. The human body has a certain degree of immunity. If the number of viruses is small and the virulence is not strong, it is difficult to cause illness or the symptoms are mild. At this time, the patient will become a latent carrier. The number and virulence of the virus are closely related to the severity of the bite and the patient's physical condition.

What are the symptoms of rabies?

The main symptoms of rabies during the incubation period are low to moderate fever, loss of appetite, general discomfort, nausea, headache, etc.; a few days later, the wound and surrounding nerves will feel itching, numbness, radiating pain or other abnormal sensations, accompanied by chest pressure, chest pain, increased irritability and other symptoms.

If the typical "three fears" of rabies - fear of light, water and wind - appear, the disease has entered the middle stage. When the symptoms of convulsions gradually stop, it means that rabies has reached the late stage. At this time, there will also be symptoms of weakened physical indicators such as breathing, blood pressure, sensation, and pulse, and the patient will eventually die from respiratory and circulatory failure.

The above is an introduction to the incubation period and symptoms of rabies. I hope it can help everyone better understand rabies. Experts say that if the typical rabies symptoms of the "three fears" appear, the condition is already quite serious, so if you are bitten or scratched by an animal, you should seek medical treatment in time and get a rabies vaccine for preventive treatment.