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AquaDoctor t1_iufhixf wrote

If you have a bite or a suspected bite, you get two things on the first day. You get your first dose of vaccine as well as a weight based Immunoglobulin (Ig). Vaccines take time to work, and so to keep you from death the Ig is basically premade antibodies that will work to fight rabies immediately.

So Day 0 you get those and then you typically get boosters on Days 3, 7, and 14.

As others commented I think there has been like 1 rabies infected person who lived without treatment. That’s why bite or suspected bite or even remote possibility of exposure, get Ig and vaccine. If you wake up to a bat in your room, assume exposure.

By then you should be protected for about 3 years. If you work around bats you’ll get boosters after that point to help ensure you have circulating antibodies.

Source: I’m a doctor and I woke up to a bat in my room two years ago so I assumed exposure. And I’m alive still.

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Quick_Turnover t1_iug18dd wrote

How the heck are these bats getting into peoples rooms!?

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Bu22ard t1_iug8hsk wrote

You don’t have bats in your room to wake you up?

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frustrated-brain t1_iughg4y wrote

I wonder how many doses does batman have to take with all those bat's around him

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Bu22ard t1_iuhl1fu wrote

He might be that one case of getting infected and surviving without treatment.

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urahonky t1_iuhishv wrote

Yeah I'm confused... How tf are other people waking up in the mornings?

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sonicthehedgehog16 t1_iuhvw1a wrote

In some areas they roost in attics and then escape into other parts of the house

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_Oman t1_iufxih4 wrote

Hello Mr. Dr.

Had wildlife worker friend who encountered the wonderful world of rabid raccoons much too often. He was told the Ig was to get an immediate immune response using foreign antibodies so that the virus could not replicate well enough to move into the nerve cells. For some reason if the virus does reach the long nerves, the body can't make an effective defense and the virus will kill you.

Does that seem correct?

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Xion407 t1_iuhzn1y wrote

Basically yes this is true, the antibody injection will fight the virus to give your body time to create its own antibodies in response to the vaccine. Rabies must be kept out of the central nervous system because once it reaches there then it’s already too late and the odds of survival are almost zero. It takes our body a week or two to start creating its own antibodies and that’s why you have to receive several doses while your body is ramping up production.

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kai58 t1_iuhbsog wrote

Iirc the one who survived wasn’t even without treatment, there was only a single person who survived after showing symptoms.

I’m too lazy to look for the copypasta about it but basically if you get bitten with rabies and show symptoms you’re already doomed.

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Psychological_Dish75 t1_iuhh75i wrote

Can I have a follow up from someone who know nothing of biology. Is rabies from different animal different, or is that vaccine can target all of them ?

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marker_dinova t1_iuj5d96 wrote

Woah. A friend of mine told me a squirrel bit him a while back (a few years ago). When I asked him if he got rabies shots he dismissed them and said the squirrel looked fine and nothing has happened to him since. Might he be in the clear?

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