Why is a stray dog bite dangerous? When do you need to urgently run to the emergency room? What vaccines should a child receive to avoid contracting life-threatening diseases?
One of the injuries that often happen to children is the bite of a stray or domestic dog. In summer, the danger increases significantly. Children and dogs spend a lot of time on the street, and parents do not always have time to prevent a child's contact with an animal in time. Meanwhile, an animal bite can infect a person with a fatal disease: hydrophobia (or rabies) cannot be cured. In 99.9% of cases, the disease ends in death. An infectious disease doctor told us about how to prevent infection after a bite Evgeny Shcherbina.
Why rabies is dangerous
Both stray and domestic dogs suffer from rabies / istockphoto.com
Hydrophobia or rabies is an infectious disease that is transmitted to humans when the saliva of a sick animal comes into contact with blood (most often through the penetration of the virus into the wound after a bite). Once in the body, the rabies virus destroys nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, causing
paralysis and death. It is impossible to recover from rabies: today there are no drugs in the world that will help in case of infection. The only way to prevent disease progression is with a vaccine.People are not routinely vaccinated against rabies. It makes sense to vaccinate against this disease for those who are constantly in contact with animals (for example, veterinarians). If you or your child has been bitten by a dog, then an emergency vaccination is given: this is a series of six vaccinations over three months (1, 3, 7, 14, 30 and 90 days after the bite). Such vaccination almost 100% allows you to stop the spread of the disease throughout the body, but it is very desirable to start vaccinating on the very first day after the bite of the animal.
Bitten by a dog: algorithm of actions
A dog with rabies is not always aggressive / istockphoto.com
At first glance, it is impossible to determine whether a dog is sick with rabies. This disease has characteristic symptoms (aggressiveness, profuse salivation, fear of water and bright light), however, they are typical for the active form of the disease, and appear when the animal is not the first day. At the initial stages of the disease, the animal, on the contrary, shows excessive benevolence, fondles a person and seeks to lick him. A bite from such a dog can be a complete surprise.
The first thing to do after being bitten is to inspect and treat the wound. According to Evgeny Shcherbina, proper wound treatment in itself reduces the risk of infection by about 30%. “When bitten by an animal, wash the wound well under running water using a sponge with any liquid or solid soap for at least 5 minutes. After that, apply an antiseptic to the wound, for example, a solution of Miramistin or Octenisept. In case of heavy bleeding, you need to press the wound with a clean cloth and immediately contact the nearest emergency room, ”the expert recommends.
If the dog is a stray dog, there should be no doubt about whether to get a rabies shot. On the same day, take the child and go to the hospital. “There is no age limit for emergency rabies prophylaxis,” emphasizes Yevgeny Shcherbina. “The only thing that changes with age is where the vaccine is given. For children under 3 years of age, the vaccine is usually given in the antero-lateral surface of the thigh, and in children over 3 years of age and adults in the shoulder area. Please note: the rabies vaccine should never be injected into the gluteal region, as this can reduce the immune response. "
Rabies vaccine is usually given in the shoulder / istockphoto.com
If the dog is domesticated, the tactics of action change slightly. First of all, you need to ask the owner if the dog has been vaccinated against rabies. “An animal vaccinated according to the plan, as a rule, is very well protected from infection with rabies personally, and from the possibility of infecting people around it. However, vaccination is not a guarantee, ”warns Yevgeny Shcherbina. Therefore, in such a situation, we take the phone number from the owners of the animal and call it for 10 days. If during this time the dog has died or disappeared, an emergency vaccination must be started.
If the domestic dog has not been vaccinated against rabies, we do the same: we observe the animal for 10 days and, if necessary (death or loss of the dog), we go for an emergency vaccination. By the way, if you have reason to suspect rabies in an animal, you can not delay with vaccinations. The first ones can be done immediately, and if within 10 days the bitten animal remains alive, the vaccination course can be interrupted.
What else can a dog bite be dangerous?
In addition to rabies, a dog's teeth can have tetanus bacteria / istockphoto.com
In addition to rabies, a dog can infect a person with another dangerous infectious disease. This is tetanus. Spores of the bacterium Clostridium tetani, which causes this disease, are practically everywhere (especially in soil, ash and animal feces), so they may well be present on teeth dogs. Tetanus causes convulsions and damage to the nervous system, and without treatment it can be fatal.
The main protection against tetanus is also vaccination. In Ukraine, children are routinely vaccinated against this disease. “If a child is vaccinated against tetanus by age, he is not in danger of becoming infected,” says Yevgeny Shcherbina. - But if the child is not vaccinated, or missed the scheduled revaccination, after a dog bite, he should be injected with the missing dose of the vaccine against tetanus and tetanus immunoglobulin or serum if he does not have a full three-dose primary course of vaccination. ”
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