RABIES refers to as fatal viral infection which is transmitted to humans through the bite of rabid domestic animals like dogs, or wild animals such as foxes.
In most cases symptoms of rabies take 10 days to three months to show out, but the symptoms may vary from one week to a year, depending on the site of the bite and the rabies viral load in the human body.
The doctors at the Rabies clinic in Entebbe sub district say that if a person is bitten on the head the symptoms of rabies present in a shorter time. This is because the nearer to the brain, the shorter the incubation period of rabies.
Some of the symptoms of rabies are:- the virus spread through the central nervous system and damages the brain and the spinal cord. The initial symptoms are fever, pain or unexplained tingling, pricking or burning sensation at the wound side. Other symptoms are pain and difficulty in swallowing, abdominal pain, a lot of thick and sticky saliva as well as restlessness. In the late stages, the child gets mental confusion, convulsions, paralysis, hydrophobia [fear of water]. The victim may get into comma and suffer heart and respiratory failure.
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