Saturday, March 03, 2007

Don't Fear the Rabies Shots

People are still afraid to get rabies shots:

The man — who lives east of Edmonton — did not get vaccinated after he was attacked in August 2006 and is now in serious condition in hospital, said Dr. Karen Grimsrud, a provincial health officer.

Grimsrud said the Alberta man woke up in the middle of the night when the bat bit him, but he didn't show any symptoms until January.

"Once you develop the neurological symptoms, there's very little that can be done," Grimsrud said Friday. "All we can do is make them comfortable."


It used to be 26 shots—directly into the stomach. And it hurt, they say, a lot. BUT THINGS HAVE CHANGED. Read:

DON’T WORRY; it’s not twenty shots in the stomach anymore. Today, the rabies vaccine has only 5-7 shots in the arm and the butt. The shots are spread out on different days, and they help your body fight the rabies virus, so you don’t catch the disease. If you get the shots started in time (usually within 7 - 10 days), you shouldn’t catch the virus at all. Your body fights it off. Without the treatment, a person bitten by a rabid animal will probably die.


That's my community service report for the day. Best of luck and health to the poor guy in Edmonton.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have gone thru the painful series of rabies shots thru the navel many years ago. This was not pleasant. I have heard there is a shortage of rabies vacccine. With that said, I heard the old vaccine is available, so which means the shots are again thru the navel?

LT said...

I bet it wasn't pleasant. Glad it worked.

There does seem to be a shortage.

I'll update and try to find out.

Anonymous said...

Well, with the personal experience of getting the rabies shots thru the navel, the Dr that gave these, that is how he did it. It was painful. Having a convoluted and twisted outie, didn't help matters along the way. After 15 out of the 21, I had so much scar tissue built up in my navel, every needle injected was dreaded. I hated to walk back into the examining room and lay down on the exam table, and pull my shirt off to the side, for about what was to happen was painful

Unknown said...

It wasn’t pleasant! Hurt terribly can you imagine having a long sharp needle going thru the center of your navel? Well i went thru it