Symptoms of rabies

Written by Xiong Hong Hai
Infectious Disease
Updated on January 30, 2025
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After the onset of rabies, obvious clinical symptoms appear, including panic, irritability, and a range of neurological symptoms such as fear of wind, water, bright lights, and noise sensitivity. There can also be hyperextension, restlessness, hallucinations, and ultimately death due to coma. Once rabies begins to manifest, most patients die within 3-5 days, with very few surviving beyond a week. Rabies is a fatal disease, with a 100% mortality rate once infected, and there are no effective treatments available.

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Written by Xiong Hong Hai
Infectious Disease
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Can rabies be transmitted indirectly?

Actually, the vast majority of rabies cases are caused by being bitten by rabid dogs and not getting vaccinated against rabies. The remaining few cases may be due to bites or scratches from cats or bats, and there are basically no instances of indirect transmission leading to infection. Rabies is a fatal disease, with a 100% fatality rate once infected. Therefore, it is crucial to enhance prevention as there are no treatment options available. Once rabies is definitively diagnosed, isolation must be enforced. If bitten by a rabid dog, it is important to handle the situation promptly by administering rabies vaccine and rabies immunoglobulin.

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Written by Xiong Hong Hai
Infectious Disease
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Symptoms of rabies

Rabies is an extremely dangerous and fatal disease. Once infected, it leads to a 100% fatality rate. When rabies presents its more typical symptoms, particularly during the furious phase, it manifests significant neurological symptoms such as hallucinations, convulsive seizures, bizarre behavior, hyperactivity, and rigid neck muscles. Symptoms show as extreme fear, with a pronounced fear of water, light, and wind, and include uncontrollable spasms of the throat muscles making swallowing difficult. It progresses to opisthotonus and ultimately results in coma and death.

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Written by Xiong Hong Hai
Infectious Disease
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Rabies fear of water refers to hydrophobia, a symptom of rabies characterized by a fear or panic attack when attempting to drink water or when presented with liquids.

Patients with rabies are indeed very afraid of water. When trying to drink water, or even when seeing water or hearing the word "water," they experience uncontrollable spasms in the throat muscles and difficulty swallowing. Although they are very thirsty, they dare not drink water. In addition to being afraid of water, they are also afraid of bright lights, noise, and wind. These stimuli can cause whole-body spasms and pain, lead to opisthotonos, excessive nervous excitement, and eventually result in death due to coma.

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Written by Xiong Hong Hai
Infectious Disease
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Is rabies contagious?

Rabies is contagious; in fact, most cases of rabies result from being bitten by rabid dogs, cats showing symptoms of the disease, or bats carrying the rabies virus. There have been no reports of transmission from human to human. Rabies is a fatal disease, with a 100% mortality rate once infected. The saliva of dogs showing symptoms contains a high concentration of the virus. If one is bitten and does not receive timely prevention and intervention, there is a high likelihood of contracting the infection.

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Written by Han Jian Hua
Infectious Disease
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Rabies symptoms

Rabies is mainly characterized by hydrophobia, fear of wind, pharyngeal muscle spasms, progressive paralysis, etc. It is divided into: the prodromal phase, the excitative phase, and the paralytic phase, with varying symptoms in each phase.