Question

A public health official tells you that a wildlife carer who was never vaccinated against rabies was bitten by an insectivorous bat 3 days ago in a cave in Margaret River, Western Australia, and seems clinically healthy. The bat escaped during the biting incident and cannot be found. What advice do you offer?

Select one:

a. The patient should immediately receive post-exposure prophylaxis for rabies virus.

b. Since the patient is apparently healthy 3 days after the bite, there is no cause for concern.

c. The wildlife carer is likely to become rabid and unfortunately, there is no treatment.

d. Rabies virus does not occur in Australia, so there is no cause for concern.

Answer 1

The patient should be advised for

a. The patient should immediately receive post exposure prophylaxis for rabies vaccine.

Rationale: The patient should be initiated with the treatment immediately regardless of the exposure time interval. As he had never been vaccinated for rabies before he should be administered with both human rabies immunoglobulin and rabies vaccine.

b.Human rabies are always considered as fatal. Eventhough the person is healthy, post exposure prophylaxis is necessary to protect him from harm. Hence option b is not advisable.

C. No, the patient should be managed with proper wound care. Proper wound cleaning will help to reduce the risk of rabies. Hence option c is not advisable.

d. In Australia, rabies can occur in bats and it transmit to humans and also other animals. So the person have high risk of getting rabies vaccine. So it is also not correct.