Symptoms of rabies

Rabies affects the nervous system. Early illness may be vague, with fever, tiredness, headache, anxiety, or tingling, pain, or itching around an old wound. Later signs can include agitation, confusion, difficulty swallowing, muscle spasms, fear or difficulty with water, hallucinations, weakness, or paralysis. The absence of symptoms soon after an animal bite does not rule out risk. Once symptoms develop, rabies is a medical emergency, which is why action after exposure matters.

Wash a bite, scratch, or area exposed to saliva with soap and running water as soon as possible, then seek urgent medical advice. Report the animal, if this can be done safely, and describe the species, location, behaviour, and time of contact. Do not handle an unfamiliar or wild animal. A clinician will assess whether rabies post-exposure prophylaxis is needed. Vaccination can help prevent rabies in people with relevant risk.

Get urgent care immediately after a bite, scratch, or saliva contact with broken skin or the eyes, mouth, or nose from a potentially infected animal. Go to emergency care for confusion, trouble swallowing, breathing difficulty, severe agitation, spasms, new weakness, or paralysis. Do not wait for symptoms before asking for exposure advice.

Ask whether the contact counts as an exposure, which wound care is needed, whether vaccination or post-exposure treatment is indicated, and when each dose should be given. Share any previous rabies vaccination history.