Rabies, babies

[jere7my]

Yesterday, I was crossing the street to Diesel, and walked between a dog tied to a parking meter and a soup bone about four feet away from it. Like a moron, I reached down to pat the dog on the head, saying something like, "Aww, look, you have a bone!"

After he let go of my knee, there was a hole in my jeans and a two-inch laceration on my leg.

Like an even bigger moron, I continued into Diesel rather than waiting for the owner to come by so I could ask whether the dog had been vaccinated for rabies. By the time I emerged from checking my knee in the bathroom it was gone. If I'd remained, this story would have ended last night; as it was, I spent the evening (after an excellent dinner at carpenter's house) doing research on rabies.

Turns out that rabies has been all but eliminated in housepets. There were zero cases of rabies in Massachusetts dogs in 2010, and exactly one case of rabies in a Massachusetts human since 1935 (he got it from a bat). This dog was owned, the attack was provoked; the chances of me developing rabies from the bite were infinitesimal.

But if symptoms developed, it would be too late to do anything. No do-overs. I would die.

In other words, I would be betting my life on the hope that this dog had not somehow missed getting its shots, and not gotten into a fight with a raccoon last week. Rather than Gambling With Death, I biked to the Mount Auburn clinic this afternoon, where, over the course of two hours, I received eleven injections: one in each arm, five into the wound itself, and four in my butt. (The five in the wound were all from one needle, but five punctures, half a cc at a time.) Only one or two of the shots were actively painful; they use fine-gauge needles, which for the most part I barely felt. The doctor and the nurses were all pleasant and sympathetic, and to a one seemed pained that I'd had the misfortune of getting bitten by a dog a) who almost certainly was not rabid and b) whose rabies status could not be verified. (One of them asked, "Was it, uh, with his mouth that he...bit you?" That confused me.)

I go back again on Tuesday, next Saturday, and the following Saturday, for one shot in the arm each time. After that, I will be IMMUNE TO RABIES, as well as tetanus and (randomly) whooping cough. (The new tetanus booster is a) permanent and b) also effective against pertussis.) The bite is not infected; dog bite infections present within 24 hours, the doc said, and only 20% of dog bites (as opposed to 80% of cat bites) become infected. I am a bit sore in one arm, and in a couple of spots on my butt. My co-pay was $20.

All in all, much better than I feared. And now I can play with bats all I want, because I am IMMUNE TO RABIES!

Comments

[allectofromlj]

I assume he was uncertain as to whether you were bitten or scratched?

either way, it sucks you got bitten, but congrats on being rabies-immune! Is there a reason humans not just routinely vaccinated the way our house pets are? (Other than that you apparently need 14 shots (!) ?)

[sparr0.livejournal.com]

Just a guess, but I suspect humans could take the typical mammal-pet rabies vaccine, but I ALSO suspect that that vaccine has a higher mortality rate. One shot with a 1/10000 mortality rate is probably ok for pets. 14 shots to get that down to 1/10M for humans is deemed worthwhile by the PTB.

[uncleamos]

The pre-infection vaccine is not as many shots as the post-infection treatment, which includes immune globulin as well as the vaccine. However, the vaccine is only good for a couple of years, and it's expensive.

As best I can recall from visiting travel medicine before going to Africa, the human rabies vaccine is 3 shots, costs $700, and lasts for 2 years.

[uncleamos]

Oh, also, personal story: Given that I was not planning to crash around in brush off the beaten path, and that I was not insured for it, I declined the vaccine. The doc was like: OK, that's fine, but if a conceivably-rabid animal bites you you need to bath the wound in scalding hot water and return to the United States immediately, and I mean immediately, because the total immune globulin reserves in Tanzania are zero, meaning you cannot be treated for rabies in Tanzania.

[irilyth]

Ow! Bleah. Glad to hear you're ok.

[eclectic-boy.livejournal.com]

Now let's hope the dog was radioactive, and you develop Canine Powers!

[tirerim.livejournal.com]

You are probably immune to diptheria, too, since they generally put that in with the tetanus and whooping cough. I hadn't heard about the tetanus shots being permanent, though; that must be new since the last time I got vaccinated, in 2007. I guess I can look forward to only having to do that once more, in 2017.

[myalexandria.livejournal.com]

whoa, I totally did not realize this was the backstory to your needing antibiotic cream the other night! good lord!

I am, however, glad you're immune to rabies (and tetanus and whooping cough!)

[antimony.livejournal.com]

Huh, I got a DPT booster shot a couple of months ago, and that was supposedly the standard ten-years version. (Diptheria/Pertussis/Tetanus, which was the case for all of the tetanus shots I can remember getting.)

I am glad you are not rabid! Or infected.

[jere7my.livejournal.com]

I believe I misunderstood — they said I would never need ot get that shot again, by which they meant the Tdap shot, which is a one-time thing. In ten years, I will need to get a different shot (Td).