When someone gets bitten by an animal, why do we need its head to tell if it has rabies before treating them (shouldn’t we treat them for rabies regardless)?
In: Biology
The factors that go into deciding treatment are: type of exposure (direct or indirect), gravity of exposure (superficial cut or deep cut…) and the animal (vaccinated domesticated animal, non vaccinated domestic animal or wild animal)
The doctors will use all this information to decide on how to handle the case.
If it’s a wild animal such as a bat then it’s presumed and the correct conduct is treating with serum and four doses of vaccine. Im domestic animals, the cat or dog should be observed for 10 days, if in that time it shows signs of rabies or disappears then you treat.
This is how the brazilian gov treats for rabies at least. Other countries might have different guidelines.
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