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Thread: So you think you have Rabies.....

  1. #61
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
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    1,320

    Re: So you think you have Rabies.....

    Just thought I'd add something to this thread as occasionally I see threads by people from the UK about rabies and I know a bit about this as some of my friends are ecologists.

    First of all rabies was eradicated in the UK in 1922.

    Ah but, your anxiety says, I Googled and there were some cases in bats in the 00s! Yes a rabies-type virus was found in Daubenton's Bats, and there was one fatality of a bat worker. This means bat workers now legally need a rabies shot before they can handle wild bats as a precaution.

    But remember these are bat workers whose job it is to poke their hands in bat roosts. There has literally been no-one ever in this country who has had a rabid bat swoop down and bite them, and never will, that's not how it works. The bats over your garden - which are probably Pipistrelles or Long-eared Bats - are healthy bats feeding normally, who will avoid you, and are no threat unless you're a moth!

    So in summary, all species of mammal in the UK are rabies free, there are a tiny amount of bats with a rabies-like virus, but this is only even a remote issue if your job involves provoking bats in a situation where sick ones will be lurking, and even then it's vanishingly unlikely. The chance you contracting rabies in the UK is 0.
    Last edited by axolotl; 20-10-18 at 11:55.

  2. #62
    Join Date
    Sep 2016
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    857

    Re: So you think you have Rabies.....

    I get the impression that 90% of the rabies fearers in here dont bother to read this thread and keep posting their invisible bat threads.

  3. #63
    Join Date
    Aug 2017
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    251

    Re: So you think you have Rabies.....

    So how is it then that people say you can get bit by bats and not know...?



    Quote Originally Posted by venusbluejeans View Post
    Recently we have had many posts about the fear of contracting rabies from the most unlikely of scenarios.

    I thought I would make a post with some facts about Rabies which will hopefully put some peoples minds at rest a little.

    Most of the posts we get come from people in the US, so this post is aimed at those in the US



    What is Rabies?
    Rabies is a viral disease affecting the central nervous system of warm-blooded animals

    How rare is Rabies

    In this century, the number of human deaths caused by rabies in the United States has drastically declined, from more than 100 cases per year to an average of just two or three cases a year…. This fact was in 2014 and that number is still declining!

    So that means that there are 325.7 million people in the United States…….. That is 325700000 and just 2 or 3 of those 325700000 people per year contract rabies, that is a completely miniscule chance of contracting Rabies

    Since 2008 there have been 23 cases of human rabies infection, 8 of which were due to exposures outside of the U.S

    How is Rabies Transmitted?

    Transmission occurs when saliva containing the rabies virus is introduced into an opening in the skin. 90% of animals which are infected with rabies are wild animals, the chances of a pet passing Rabies on to you is very very rare and can not be transmitted by you by walking on or touching something that a rabid animal may or may not have walked on/chewed.

    you need to have an open wound on which a rabid animal has got saliva to contract Rabies

    Rabies is NOT transmitted by a rabid animals blood..... just saliva

    Bats and other animals will not jump out and bite you in your sleep

    If an animal bites you you WILL know….. animals are NOT ninjas you will notice if an animal has bitten you. You WILL see the animal.

    To make the chances even less (than very very minimal).......

    vaccinate your pets and other domestic animals (like cows, goats, sheep, and horses)


    Avoid contact with wild animals – do not feed or handle them, even if they seem friendly. If you see a wild animal acting strangely, report it to animal control.

    Wash any wound with hot soapy water and keep it clean and covered

    2 last things to remember....

    1.... How miniscule your chances of contracting rabies actually is in the USA...
    3 in 325700000 at most! that is roughly 0.0000000092% chance!!

    2.... This is the Rabies virus.... it looks so much friendlier if you add googly eyes and think of it like that





  4. #64
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    Re: So you think you have Rabies.....

    Who says that?
    __________________
    Nicola

    “Don't be afraid of death; be afraid of an unlived life. You don't have to live forever, you just have to live.” - Natalie Babbitt

    Please help keep NMP running and donate to the running costs: http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/donate




  5. #65
    Join Date
    Aug 2017
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    Re: So you think you have Rabies.....

    Random places online.. like articles etc... in the past I’ve read bay bites are so small you might not even know it... so how do you know for sure then? I’m not the kind of person that is indoors... I’m outsoors a lot- hiking, photographing..working out..I’m just saying...

  6. #66
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    Apr 2003
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    Re: So you think you have Rabies.....

    Bats won't bite you unless they are being attacked maybe.

    They won't even have rabies if they did bite you.

    You are really worrying over nothing I promise.
    __________________
    Nicola

    “Don't be afraid of death; be afraid of an unlived life. You don't have to live forever, you just have to live.” - Natalie Babbitt

    Please help keep NMP running and donate to the running costs: http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/donate




  7. #67

    Re: So you think you have Rabies.....

    It's been a long time since I logged in to this forum. When I first signed up I thought I was the only rabies-phobic person in the world! It seems it's not such an unusual fear. I'd like to reassure people with this phobia that it can be beaten. Sadly, I've found I found my health anxiety is capable of latching on to dozens of other concerns, but at least now I'm capable of recognising the anxiety problem and taking action to combat this anxiety. Stick at it, folks, it does get better.

  8. #68

    Re: So you think you have Rabies.....

    I hope you guys don't mind me resurrecting a dead thread, but I've posted about rabies before and worry that if I make another whole thread they will get merged and my newer one won't reach anybody. I can never calm myself down when my OCD is hyperfocused on rabies, but I am always happy to be a voice of reason for others and just wanted to share some life experience to maybe help some other sufferers of this horrible fear realize how unlikely the worst case scenario truly is.

    I grew up in Washington state and spent most of my life in mountain towns surrounded by forests. I was always around wild animals and I always loved animals so much I was never worried about being careful. I never had rabies anxiety until I had a bat encounter about 5 years ago that changed everything, and I still don't know why it suddenly started since I had been around bats before and never worried about it. Mental health is funny like that I guess.

    Anyway, I just wanted to share a few of the several times I could've theoretically been exposed to rabies but didn't think twice about and nothing came of it.

    My grandma and I used to love to sleep outside under the stars on her porch during the summer and we would watch the bats fly around until we fell asleep. Outside. Where the bats are. We were never bitten.

    Bats used to get inside my grandmas house all the time during the summer and autumn, and even when my grandparents would be swatting at them with brooms and trying to get them out of the house, the poor things never once even TRIED to attack anybody. Apparently they still have the bat problem, and to this day no one has been bitten, even when they've woken up to a bat flying around in the room. They have never captured and submitted one of the bats for testing, and they have never gotten the vaccine. They've been dealing with bats in the house since the 80s when they built it.

    My dad once found a bunch of dead bats in the woods and brought them home because he thought they were cool and wanted to show my mom. Needless to say, she was disgusted and horrified but no one got rabies.

    Over a decade ago, I woke up while camping to some sort of furry creature rustling around on my chest and digging at my blankets. I sat up and as it went running away I realized it was a little baby skunk. Thankfully I didn't get sprayed nor did I get rabies.

    I have lost count of the number of stray dogs and cats I've pet and been licked by. Never got sick. In fact, when I was in high school there was one particular stray cat who used to come and see me all the time who had a severe drooling problem and he loved to lick people. He salivated so much I called him "Bubbles". I never even thought about rabies. My whole family loved him and he lived a long time.

    When I was homeless for a while as a teen, me and some friends stayed in an abandoned barn for a few months. It was infested with mice and we did see the occasional bat but no one ever got bitten by anything.

    A couple years ago, I was out one summer night wearing shorts and a rabbit came running out of nowhere and crashed into my ankle and then took off running in the other direction. Poor thing was probably terrified but it didn't give me rabies.

    I am no stranger to being out at night and seeing bats flying around. Not once have I been bitten by one, even once or twice when they swooped incredibly close to me.

    I could probably list more examples, but I'd be here all day. It really is so incredibly unlikely that even if you were bitten by an invisible ninja bat, it wouldn't have rabies. If only I could use my own life experiences to convince myself to calm down when my OCD gets bad, but at least I can reassure others.
    Last edited by ButterscotchLatte; 07-04-22 at 15:54.

  9. #69

    Re: So you think you have Rabies.....

    Quote Originally Posted by ButterscotchLatte View Post
    I hope you guys don't mind me resurrecting a dead thread, but I've posted about rabies before and worry that if I make another whole thread they will get merged and my newer one won't reach anybody. I can never calm myself down when my OCD is hyperfocused on rabies, but I am always happy to be a voice of reason for others and just wanted to share some life experience to maybe help some other sufferers of this horrible fear realize how unlikely the worst case scenario is.

    I could probably list more examples, but I'd be here all day. It really is so incredibly unlikely that even if you were bitten by an invisible ninja bat, it wouldn't have rabies. If only I could use my own life experiences to convince myself to calm down when my OCD gets bad, but at least I can reassure others.
    Hey, ButterscotchLatte, I know this comment is kind of old (and the whole thread is old too) but I just wanted to tell you that your comment in particular is really helpful for me to read.

    I recently had a possible bat exposure that resulted in my getting the post-exposure vaccines, and I’ve been a nervous wreck. I’m still in the middle of the vaccine series, and 2 days after my third shot, I developed a sore throat, which I still have 4 days later! It’s been scaring the crap out of me. I’m afraid the vaccines failed to work because I didn’t start treatment until 4 days after the incident (all the recommendations say you shouldn’t wait more than 72 hours).

    And it doesn’t help that last year, a guy in Minnesota took the vaccines but still died from rabies, so the vaccines don’t work 100% of the time I guess. It’s suspected his vaccines didn’t work due to an undiagnosed autoimmune condition, which I also possibly have, so I’m scared about that as well.

    The thing is, I’m not even 100% certain I was bitten (although I did see many bats living on the house, roosting in the trees, and flying around the bushes that I reached into when I got my possible bite). And even if I did actually get bitten, there’s no guarantee the bat was rabid since like less than 1% of bats in the US even have rabies according to the latest data. And even if I was bitten and it did have rabies, I’m getting the vaccines, which have only failed one time in the US in history as far as I know, so I’ll likely be okay.

    Despite how unlikely it is though, my anxiety has still been out of control with the sore throat and it’s so hard not to focus on the “what ifs”.

    Side note, I grew up only a state away in Oregon! And same here, growing up I had all kinds of wildlife encounters and never gave rabies a second thought until I got older and developed health anxiety.

    Anyways, just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to post this. I tried to start my own thread in the rabies forum (my first time ever posting my own thread on NMP) but no one responded to me, so I’ve just been reading through other posts looking for comfort.
    Last edited by SpookyCat311; 19-09-22 at 20:44.

  10. #70

    Re: So you think you have Rabies.....

    Quote Originally Posted by golddustgirl1000 View Post
    Random places online.. like articles etc... in the past I’ve read bay bites are so small you might not even know it... so how do you know for sure then? I’m not the kind of person that is indoors... I’m outsoors a lot- hiking, photographing..working out..I’m just saying...
    I don't want to scare you, but you're actually right. CDC guidelines are that if you wake up and see a bat in your room, you must get the shots even if you don't think that you've had contact, because a lot of people DON'T know that they've been bitten. Sometimes people will wake up with a bat on them, but sometimes they won't. The point is that this is VERY, VERY RARE, but I don't think we should alleviate anxiety by spreading misconceptions. I had my own rabies scare this year and I literally reviewed every single case of rabies in the US and Canada from 1990 to present. All the case reports are online. In this guy's case, he woke up to a bat near his head, but didn't think he had any contact with it: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6905a1.htm

    Good news is that these bats are sick, and they likely won't just bite you and disappear. You'll most likely see them somewhere around you.

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