Tourists advised to stay away from animals
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While animal-loving travelers may find it hard to stay away from dogs, cats and other animals, it is a necessary precaution, experts warn.
The warning, contained in a paper in the British Medical Journal this week, comes on the heels of the recent case of a British woman who died of rabies after being bitten by a dog while on a two-week trip in Goa, India. The woman was in her late 30s.
Travelers to Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, where rabies is common need to get vaccinated and avoid contact with animals when in these countries, say Dr. Anthony Fooks of the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Weybridge, UK, and colleagues.
Rabies is an incurable and rapidly fatal disease usually transmitted through an animal bite. Rabies kills at least 40,000 people worldwide each year, with the vast majority of these deaths (90 percent) occurring in the developing world, particularly in India.
The British woman was admitted to the hospital with a shooting pain in her lower back and left leg. She reported that she had been nipped on the left leg by a leashed puppy while walking down a street in Goa, India. The encounter left her with only a scratch, which she forgot about. She did not seek medical attention.
Because rabies is rare in the UK, it wasn’t diagnosed until the woman had been in the hospital for 15 days. She died on the 18th day.
Post-exposure rabies shots are very effective against the virus, if given promptly after a bite. The woman’s family reported that she was unaware of the risk of rabies and had not been vaccinated against rabies before setting off on her trip or after the encounter with the puppy.
This case, the team says, serves as an important reminder of the risk of rabies for any traveler to a country where rabies is endemic. Although rabies is more likely after the bite of a stray or rabid dog, this case shows that even an apparently harmless bite from a pet needs to be taken seriously, they warn. This is especially true if the bite is unprovoked, because that might indicate that the animal is in the early stages of rabies.
The key to avoiding rabies, experts say, is to get vaccinated before travel, avoid animals, and get help urgently if bitten.
SOURCE: British Medical Journal September 3, 2005.
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