Rabies

A life threatening viral disease involving the central nervous system usually transmitted by the bite of a rabid animal.  Symptoms are fever, headache, pain, and malaise, with pain, numbness, and tingling at the injury site.  As the disease progresses, changes in behavior, agitation, and hallucinations may occur.  There may be neurological dysfunction causing difficulty swallowing, excessive salivation, convulsions, cardiac arrhythmias, respiratory failure, and death.  There is no effective treatment once symptoms appear.  For potential exposure, immune globulin and 5 doses of rabies vaccine are given.