Made the mistake of thinking about rabies

[lorenza]

After watching a TV show that referenced rabies I made the mistake of dwelling on it for too long and have now got stuck in a cycle of trying to convince myself of opportunities where I contracted it.

I live in the UK and have never been bitten by an animal that has broken the skin, so I had just started to work through that obsessive thought, but then I came across some statistics that said the disease may incubate for up to 1 year. I then thought back to the last time I went abroad which was to Philadelphia last August.

At the time I had a little HA scare regarding ebola, because when I was in the street eating an ice-cream a big issue seller asked for money and held my ice-cream as I dug in my purse - I then took another lick before getting paranoid that he may have licked it whilst I wasn't looking and that I may therefore get something - the disease I fixated on at the time was ebola.

I'm now turning that to fit this new worry, and can't stop thinking that this guy had rabies, licked my ice-cream and that I therefore got his saliva in my mouth and the rabies virus has incubated since.

I know realistically I'm being stupid, but that doesn't stop me thinking it :( Is it worth my even contacting the doctor with this?

[Fishmanpa]

Is it worth my even contacting the doctor with this?

Not even in the least.

Positive thoughts

[Emilym80]

Nope. Even if he'd been infected with rabies himself (very unlikely) he would have to have been showing symptoms to be able to transmit it to you and, to do so, he basically would have to have bitten you.

The only treatment for rabies is prophylactically administering shots of immunoglobulin to potentially infected people. They're not going to do that for someone who hasn't even been bitten, frankly.

All the best

[MyNameIsTerry]

Its very uncommon in western countries even though we have certain bat breeds that may have it but there hasn't been any cases of Rabies in the UK for many years and even then it was contracted outside of the UK - and in countries known to have issues with it (India is one of the big ones) and you get immunised before travelling to those countries anyway.

Do we need to be immunised when travelling to the US? IF the answer is no, then neither country see an issue of rabies as being indigenous.

Some relevant facts for those in the UK:

It is extremely rare in the UK. There have only been four deaths since 2000 - all in people who were bitten by dogs abroad.

The last case where someone was infected in the UK occurred in 1922, the last death from indigenous rabies was in 1902.

I would assume the US is similiar to us and doesn't have a problem in which case how likely, given the above, would it be?

Can you recognise the fact that you are applying the same Cognitive Distortions to this as you were to another equally rare disease - Ebola?

And don't then apply the fears ti bats in the UK because the statistics for deaths are above. There has been only one recent case and he was a bat handler and it didn't seem to even be confirmed as to contraction as it was used to be in Scotland.

Bats don't want to bite us anyway, they love insects and fruit in the UK and the same in most of the world.

[Emilym80]

According to the CDC, there are approximately two human cases of rabies per year. What are the chances that the man who held your ice cream was infected and licked it, too? That'd just be rude

[MyNameIsTerry]

According to the CDC, there are approximately two human cases of rabies per year. What are the chances that the man who held your ice cream was infected and licked it, too? That'd just be rude

And 90%+ is from wild animals, primarily carnivores or bats. So, unless the guy has been selling quite a distance (and maybe sold Grizzly Adam's a copy), it seems very very very unlikely he could ever come into contact with anything that could be infected.

I think its pretty likely he would have a lick anyway...he would be wearing it seconds later.

[Munchlet]

Hi

Just thought I'd post as if you look back you will see that I have had a couple or bad bouts of anxiety regarding Rabies so I can relate to where you are coming from with this.

However there has never been a documented case of a human passing rabies to another human other than via organ transplant and this is usually the cornea.

So I think you need to ask yourself this question. If in the whole of the world (even in places where Rabies is a high risk) there has never been a case of it being transmitted human to human what are the odds on it happening to you?

Honestly I know how horrible this fear is but you weren't even in an area considered high risk for Rabies and the chances of the person having it are virtually nil anyway so please don't don't worry yourself about this.

Take Care

[.Poppy.]

I think the big question here is: why would he have licked your ice cream in the first place?

For one thing, you'd have noticed that. For another, if he wanted ice cream he could have just made himself a cone He'd have to have serious problems to go around licking customer's food, and I seriously doubt that was the case.

So even if you could get rabies this way (you can't) it's not worth worrying about because the 'trigger' incident didn't even happen.

Sorry you feel this way. We have some racoons hanging around our place and I'm on rabies alert myself (but I live in the US where it's much more common). I hope you get to feeling better!!