Any warm-blooded animal can transmit the rabies virus. However, most humans are infected with or contracted rabies from dogs. This disease can be deadly if the symptoms are ignored, but this disease can also be easily prevented by following the right steps. Vaccination of animals and proper handling of wild animals (such as dogs or cats) have helped reduce the transmission rate of rabies in almost all countries. Check out step one to learn how to prevent transmission of rabies.
Step
Method 1 of 2: Preventing Transmission of Rabies To Humans And Pets
Step 1. Vaccinate your pet
Pets are the most common medium that can transmit the rabies virus to humans. Vaccination of your pet dog, cat, or ferret is an important step to take to prevent rabies infection, both for you and your pet. If your pet has not been vaccinated, take your pet to the vet and immediately carry out the vaccination process.
Step 2. Supervise your pet when outdoors
Do not allow your pets to come into direct contact with wild animals. Mammals such as squirrels, raccoons, opossums, and bats can carry the rabies virus and transmit it to dogs, cats, and ferrets through their bites. Make sure you always chain or put a leash on your pet or keep your pet out of your fence to prevent transmission of the rabies virus to your pet.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that pet cats and ferrets stay indoors to prevent transmission of the rabies virus to them.
- If you want to let your dog play freely in the open, first check with the authorities regarding rabies, which may be a health problem in the area.
Step 3. Reduce the population of wild animals in your neighborhood
Contact the Animal Control Center in your area to pick up any stray animals that roam your neighborhood. In addition, sterilize your pets. Both of these can help reduce the number of unwanted pets (most of which will not be vaccinated).
Make sure your children know that they should not carelessly handle stray animals (such as dogs or cats), whether wild or tame
Step 4. Do not handle wild animals
Also don't feed or try to attract wild animals to your home and pet them. Being in close proximity to wild animals can put you and your pets at risk of contracting rabies.
- When traveling, avoid direct contact with wild animals, especially dogs in developing countries.
- Do not try to care for sick or injured wild animals. If a stray animal is sick, contact the local Animal Control Center or contact a veterinarian.
- Take steps to prevent bats from entering your home, school, workplace, or other similar places. In these places, it is possible for bats to come into contact or have direct contact with humans or pets.
Step 5. Be careful when you travel abroad
Some countries still have high rates of rabies transmission. Before traveling abroad, talk to your doctor, travel clinic, or health department in your city about your travel plans. Ask them about the risk of exposure to the rabies virus, prophylactic immunizations that may need to be carried out before traveling, and what to do if exposed to the rabies virus.
Method 2 of 2: Tackling the Potential of Infecting Rabies
Step 1. Get medical attention immediately
Call your doctor immediately if you are bitten by a wild animal or other animal that is at risk of transmitting the rabies virus. If your pet is bitten, take your pet to the vet immediately. Don't wait long, even if it's only a day, because the virus can quickly spread throughout the body.
Step 2. Treat your wound immediately
If it appears that you will have to wait a few hours before seeking medical attention, take the following steps to clean your wound:
- Clean the bite wound on your body with soap and water. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), eradicating the rabies virus from a place by using chemicals and certain steps is the most effective way to protect yourself from the rabies virus.
- Apply ethanol (alcohol) or an iodine solution to the bite wound. Both fluids work as antiseptics that can kill sensitive bacteria.
Step 3. Go to the hospital and get the right vaccinations right away to prevent the spread of the rabies virus
If you have never received a rabies vaccination (immunization) before, the doctor will later give you an anti-rabies globulin immunization that can help prevent the spread of the rabies virus from the bite wound. In any case, you still have to get the vaccination given within a certain period of time.
- A person who is infected with the rabies virus and has never had a rabies vaccination before must receive 4 rabies vaccinations, with the first vaccination done as soon as possible. The next three vaccinations were carried out on the 3rd, 7th, and 14th day after the first vaccination. On the same day as the first rabies vaccine injection, he also had to get an injection of Human Rabies Immune Globulin or HRIG.
- If you have previously received a rabies vaccination, you only need to get 2 rabies vaccines, with the first vaccination being carried out as soon as possible and the next vaccination being carried out three days after the first vaccination.
Tips
- Rabies is a common disease in developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In these countries, dogs are the main carrier for transmitting the rabies virus. In other countries such as the United States, raccoons are the most common carriers of the rabies virus.
- When your pet is bitten by a stray animal, seek help from a veterinarian immediately.
- Do not approach wild animals that roam around your residence. The animals may not have received the rabies vaccination and may have contracted rabies.
- Teach your children the principle of loving animals, by loving your own pets first and allowing other animals. This is intended to prevent your children from direct contact with wild animals.
- If you are bitten by someone else's pet dog or cat, don't immediately assume that they have been given an anti-rabies vaccine so that they are free from the rabies virus. Having a rabies vaccine label on a dog or cat's collar does not necessarily mean that they have received a new vaccination.
- If you want to travel but want to avoid the risk of transmitting rabies, go to Hawaii. Hawaii is the only state in the United States that is free from rabies.
Warning
- Always tell your parents if you have been bitten by a wild animal.
- Rabies is a very dangerous disease for humans. If left untreated, rabies can kill someone who becomes its victim.
