Symalla recovering from a rabid skunk bite
by Karin L. Nauber
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| This skunk may look cute and innocent, but it has rabies. Skunks are the primary carriers of rabies in the midwestern United States. |
The skunk that bit 34-year-old Glorianna Symalla near her mother's home in Round Prairie Township on December 24 was confirmed to have rabies after testing done by the Minnesota Department of Health. The rabies virus was confirmed on December 31.
According to Rita Symalla, Glorianna's mother, her daughter was home visiting and taking her dogs for a walk when the skunk came right at Glorianna.
"There was no where she could go to get away from the skunk. It just came right at her and bit her," said Rita.
The skunk also bit one of Glorianna's dogs.
Both dogs had received their rabies vaccinations previously, but also received booster rabies shots from the veterinarian after the attack, said Rita. Both dogs will remain under observation for approximately 40 days to ensure they were not infected by the virus.
After Glorianna returned to her mother's home, Rita said she took her daughter to the Long Prairie Memorial Hospital where she received a tetanus shot as well as an immunoglobulin injection at the site of the bite. She also received the first of five rabies shots.
Rita said while the shots are still painful, they are no longer administered in the abdomen as they were a few years ago. She receives the shots in her arm. Glorianna has two shots remaining which are typically administered over a 28 day period.
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| Histopathologic features of rabies in the brain. Characteristic Negri bodies are present within a Purkinje cell of the cerebellum. The patient died of rabies. |
The following information was taken from Wikipedia.
About Rabies
Rabies, the Latin word for "madness, rage or fury" is a viral zoonotic disease that causes acute encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) in mammals. In non-vaccinated humans, rabies is almost invariably fatal after neurological symptoms have developed, but prompt post-exposure vaccination may prevent the virus from progressing.
Any mammal may become infected with the rabies virus and develop symptoms, including humans. Most animals can be infected by the virus and can transmit the disease to humans. Infected bats, monkeys, raccoons, foxes, skunks, cattle, wolves, dogs or cats provide the greatest risk to humans. Rabies may also spread through exposure to infected domestic farm animals, groundhogs, weasels and other wild carnivores. Squirrels, rodents and rabbits are seldom infected.
The virus is usually present in the nerves and saliva of a symptomatic rabid animal. The route of infection is usually, but not necessarily, by a bite. In many cases the affected animal is exceptionally aggressive, may attack without provocation, and exhibits otherwise uncharacteristic behavior.
After a typical human infection by bite, the virus directly or indirectly enters the peripheral nervous system. It then travels along the nerves towards the central nervous system. During this phase, the virus cannot be easily detected within the host, and vaccination may still confer cell-mediated immunity to prevent symptomatic rabies. Once the virus reaches the brain, it rapidly causes encephalitis and symptoms appear. It may also inflame the spinal cord producing myelitis.
The period between infection and the first flu-like symptoms is normally two to twelve weeks, but can be as long as two years. Soon after, the symptoms expand to slight or partial paralysis, cerebral dysfunction, anxiety, insomnia, confusion, agitation, abnormal behavior, paranoia, hallucinations, progressing to delirium. The production of large quantities of saliva and tears coupled with an inability to speak or swallow are typical during the later stages of the disease; this can result in "hydrophobia", where the victim has difficulty swallowing, shows panic when presented with liquids to drink, and cannot quench his or her thirst. The disease itself was also once commonly known as hydrophobia, from these characteristic symptoms. Death almost invariably results two to ten days after the first symptoms.
Rabies can be prevented by vaccination, both in humans and other animals. Virtually every infection with rabies was a death sentence, until Louis Pasteur and Emile Roux developed the first rabies vaccination in 1885.
If You Are Bitten
Treatment after exposure, known as post-exposure prophylaxis or "P.E.P.", is highly successful in preventing the disease if administered promptly, within fourteen days after infection. The first step is immediately washing the wound with soap and water, which is very effective at reducing the number of viral particles. In the United States, patients receive one dose of immunoglobulin and five doses of rabies vaccine over a twenty-eight day period. Since the widespread of domestic dogs and cats and the development of effective human vaccines and immunoglobulin treatments, the number of recorded deaths in the U.S. from rabies has dropped from one hundred or more annually in the early twentieth century, to 12 per year, mostly caused by bat bites, which may go unnoticed by the victim and hence untreated.
Common Carriers
in Minnesota
In the midwestern United States, skunks are the primary carriers of rabies. The most widely distributed reservoir of rabies in the United States, however, and the source of most human cases in the U.S. are bats. In many cases, victims are not even aware of having been bitten by a bat, assuming that a small puncture wound found after the fact was the bite of an insect or spider; in some cases, no wound at all can be found, leading to the hypothesis that in some cases the virus can be contracted via inhaling airborne aerosols from the vicinity of bats.
Ultimately, the best protection against rabies is prevention.