When is rabies season

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Rabies Season is Here. Teach children to observe wildlife from a distance and to notify an adult if there is a wild animal in the area or if they are bitten or scratched. Eliminate food sources for wild animals by not feeding pets outdoors, closing pet doors especially at night, and tightly closing garbage cans and feed bins.

Given all the media attention that rabies receives, it may be somewhat surprising to learn that very few people die from rabies nationwide each year. There are fewer than three fatalities each year nationwide, on average. People who contracted rabies in the United States were mostly infected by a bat. Some may have been sleeping when bitten. Less than one-half of one percent of all bats in North America carries rabies.

Although raccoons suffer from rabies more than any other mammal in the United States about 35 percent of all animal rabies cases , only one human death from the raccoon strain of rabies has been recorded in the United States. Despite the long odds of contracting rabies, the remote possibility of infection exists and should not be taken lightly:. Since its launch in , World Rabies Day has helped educate over million people and vaccinated millions of dogs through events in countries.

Globally, World Rabies Day is important because most deaths from rabies occur in countries with inadequate public health resources and limited access to preventive treatment. Since , the World Health Organization has recommended vaccination—rather than removal—of free-roaming dogs to control rabies.

Understanding rabies. Facts and safety guidelines clear up misconceptions. The best ways to guard against rabies: Don't approach or handle wild animals, especially sick wild animals. Vaccinate your pets. Get prompt post-exposure treatment when advised to do so by a doctor or health department. What is rabies? Signs of rabies in animals In the "furious" form, wild animals may appear to be agitated, bite or snap at imaginary and real objects and drool excessively.

Key facts Rabies travels from the brain to the salivary glands during the final stage of the disease—this is when an animal can spread the disease, most commonly through a bite. Rabies can't go through unbroken skin. People can get rabies only via a bite from a rabid animal or possibly through scratches, abrasions, open wounds or mucous membranes in contact with saliva or brain tissue from a rabid animal.

The rabies virus is short-lived when exposed to open air—it can only survive in saliva and dies when the animal's saliva dries up. If you handle a pet who has been in a fight with a potentially rabid animal, take precautions such as wearing gloves to keep any still-fresh saliva from getting into an open wound. Top 10 tips. Get Your Copy. Several state health departments warn that summer is peak season for rabies, as warm weather and outdoor activities increase the chance of encounters with wild animals.

Rabies is a viral disease in mammals that infects the central nervous system and, if left untreated, attacks the brain and ultimately causes death. If a person is infected, early symptoms of rabies include fever, headache, and general weakness or discomfort.

There may be a prickling or itching sensation in the area of the bite. As the disease progresses, more specific symptoms will begin to show, including insomnia, anxiety, confusion, and agitation. Partial paralysis may set in and the person may have hallucinations and delirium. They'll experience an increase in saliva, difficulty swallowing, and hydrophobia fear of water because of the difficulty swallowing.

That's why it's extremely important to get preventive treatment immediately if you think you might have been exposed to rabies. Death from rabies is rare in the United States, with only one or two fatalities occurring each year.

The statistics are different in less developed nations, where more than 55, people die each year from the disease, mostly in Africa and Asia. Rabies is transmitted to humans and other mammals through the saliva of an infected animal that bites or scratches them. The majority of rabies cases reported to the CDC each year occur in wild animals like raccoons, skunks, bats, and foxes.

In the United States, laws requiring rabies immunizations in dogs have largely eradicated the disease in pets but some dogs, particularly strays, do carry the disease. This is especially important to keep in mind when visiting other countries where stray dogs can be a big problem, Hynes says. Children do, too. It's an interesting but very important message parents need to get across to their kids that it's OK to love animals, but they should not pet or play with animals they do not know.

It's not necessarily possible to tell by looking if an animal has rabies, but its behavior may offer clues. A rabid animal may act hostile and try to bite, or it could move unusually slowly and seem to lose its natural fear of humans. If a nocturnal animal like a possum or raccoon is out in the daytime and doesn't seem scared of humans, there's a chance it could have rabies.