Research Paper On Rabies

nervous system. At this point in infection, the virus cannot be easily detected but vaccination may still help trigger cell-mediated immunity.

The average incubation period for rabies is one to three months, but may range from several days to many years after exposure. The incubation period is shorter in patients with an exposure in areas that contain a lot of nerves, such as the face, than areas like the extremities. Rabies begins with a period of non-specific symptoms, such as fever, chills, malaise, weakness, sore throat, headache, and vomiting. After this point, the infection may evolve into one of the two major forms of the disease, paralytic or furious. Occurring in 80% of cases, furious rabies is the more common. Productive replication of rabies occurs in areas of the body with high numbers of nerves, such as the salivary glands. Once the virus reaches the brain, it continues to replicate, eventually

causing symptoms.
Paralytic rabies may be mistaken for Guillain-Barre syndrome, and usually begins with muscle weakness.

Following that, the patient may experience a paralysis that is prominent in the bitten limb and will then spread. Headaches and pain in the infected muscles follow, as well as mild sensory disturbances. Paralysis will ascend, causing lack of sensation in the muscles associated with swallowing and respiration, eventually leading to death.

Patients with encephalitic rabies, also referred to as furious rabies, may experience the following symptoms:

• Flu like symptoms that last for a few days, with discomfort or tingling at the site of the bite

• Hydrophobia (30-50% of patients), which begins with discomfort and difficulty swallowing and progresses to an overwhelming fear of water based on involuntary throat spasms when trying to drink. As the disease progresses, patients may even experience muscle spasms at the mere mention or sight of water

• Contracting facial muscles which may lead to the appearance of a grimace as well as a hyperextended back or neck

muscles
• Anxiety, confusion, agitation, delirium, hallucinations, insomnia, and abnormal behavior
• Coma with paralysis, which usually results in death due to vascular or respiratory failure
Most patients die within two weeks of lapsing into a coma, often of complications related to asphyxiation, respiratory paralysis, or uncontrolled seizures.
In humans, a clinical diagnosis needs to be made based on several factors. If a patient presents with acute, progressive encephalitis, a differential diagnosis must be made regardless of exposure history. According to the Center for Disease Control, rabies is diagnosed in humans using several tests, due to limited sensitivity of any individual test. Rabies virus serological testing is a common test used to monitor the antibody levels in patients who may have been exposed to the virus. The rapid fluorescent focus inhibition test (RFFIT) is an antibody test that is performed on a cell culture and is necessary to diagnose seroconversion in patients who are believed to have been exposed. The test is performed by mixing different dilutions of patient