Two exposure cases of rabies were reported in raccoons near Pullen Park and NC State University early this month. Rabies, a neurological virus, is fatal to humans and affects many different animals in various ways.
Kimberly Ange-Van Heugten, a teaching professor in the department of animal science, said when acquired by humans, rabies is almost always fatal.
“If you acquire it, you’re going to die. There have been a few random reported cases of a human who supposedly had rabies that did not die,” Ange-Van Heugten said. “There are two cases that I can think of, where the person supposedly has rabies [and did not die] … They were in an extended coma, and then they were in more of a vegetative state throughout the rest of their life.”
Rabies is a zoonotic viral disease, meaning it can spread both from animals to humans, and from humans to animals. The main source of infection is through bites and saliva, but it is also commonly contracted through other sources like scratches and contaminated food or water.
Ange-Van Heugten said the main symptom of this disease is an altered mental state.
“It’s a neurological concern where the virus attacks your brain, your spinal cord, your nervous system. And somewhat slowly, it starts changing everything that your nervous system affects,” Ange-Van Heugten said. “[Rabies affects] your temperament, there’s an aversion to water. In general, you just feel really, really bad. You start hurting, there’s pain, there’s a lack of stability because of the spinal cord involvement.”
Tara Harrison, a professor of zoo and exotic animal medicine, said those neurological factors are what make rabies so fatal to humans.
“[Rabies] attacks the nerves or the nervous system, and it can cause inflammation in the brain. It can start with flu symptoms, and then you can start having abnormal behavior, so you might become agitated, the fear of water or hydrophobia happens, and then coma and then death,” Harrison said. “The incubation can be one to three months. So, it could be weeks or even longer. It just depends. And so I think sometimes people wait too long, or don’t realize, and then it’s almost uniformly fatal. There have been very few people who have survived, and they were put into medically induced comas.”
The most common carrier of rabies is raccoons, but almost every mammal can be a carrier. Animals such as bats, skunks and foxes are also common carriers of rabies. Domestic animals, like household cats and dogs, can carry rabies as well, and are what most commonly lead to human infection.
Ange-Van Heugten said knowing what to do when encountering an animal that may be infected is key to keeping yourself and your pets safe.
“If a raccoon, fox, coyote, bat, you name it, is acting weird, and you don’t know what’s going on, don’t take the situation into your own hands. If you’re on the NC State campus, you could call the NC State hotline, and it’s not an emergency, but you call over there and, ‘Hey, there’s a fox on campus, and it’s acting really weird. Can somebody do something about it?’ Or, ‘I just found a dead bat or a weird bat,’” Ange-Van Heugten said. “Don’t touch it … Call somebody else to come do it. You don’t want to expose yourself to something like that.”
There is no cure for rabies. Common signs of rabies in animals include aggression, foaming at the mouth, fear of water and combative tendencies, among others.
Harrison said recognizing these signs in animals is important to protecting oneself and pets.
“Usually, you can see several [early signs]. You could see increased aggression, you could also see the impressive form, or the furious form. You can see the ‘dumb form’ of rabies or the calmer, so they might become shyer, not as outgoing,” Harrison said. “Basically, personality changes, they could foam at the mouth, have excessive drooling. It usually occurs three to eight weeks after exposure. Ultimately, toward the end, they become paralyzed and go into a coma and pass away.”
Ange-Van Heugten said if you encounter a rabid animal to not approach it, and instead call the local animal control to find help for the animal.
“Worry about the animal. Don’t just see something injured and don’t do anything. Do something. That raccoon that has rabies [on Pullen Drive], we’re worried about it infecting us, but we should also be humane enough to realize that the best thing for that animal is somebody to catch it humanely and euthanize it because there’s no need for it to spend days feeling measurable and then dying anyway, and potentially exposing other raccoons, cats, dogs and whatever,” Ange-Van Heugten said. “Don’t touch it yourself. Have some awareness that it’s a thing. So, when people talk about it, just remind people to keep their hands to themselves. There are plenty of people locally who can come help.”
You can contact Raleigh Animal Control at 919-829-1911.
