Worldwide, approximately 55,000 people die from rabies each year. Rabies has the highest mortality (death) rate of all infectious diseases.
Therapy recommendations
- Immediate intensive medical care
- Except for vaccination (prevention/prevention), there is no cure for rabies.
- Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) [see below].
- See also under “Further therapy“.
Postexposure prophylaxis (PEP)
Post-exposure prophylaxis is the provision of medication to prevent disease in persons who are not protected against a particular disease by vaccination but who have been exposed to it.Implementation.
| Degree of exposure | Type of exposure: from a rabid or suspected rabid wild or domestic animal, bat | Type of exposure: through a rabies vaccine bait | Type of prophylaxis |
| I | Touching/feeding animals; licking intact skin. | Touching vaccine baits with skin intact | No vaccination |
| II | Superficial nonbleeding scratches/skin abrasions; licking/nibbling of nonintact skin | Contact with inoculation fluid from damaged bait with skin not intact | Rabies vaccination |
| III | Any bite wound or scratch; contamination of mucous membranes with saliva; suspected bite or scratch by a bat or contact of mucous membranes with a bat | Contamination of mucous membranes and fresh skin lesions with inoculant from damaged bait | Rabies vaccination and passive immunization. |
- Vaccination is performed on days 0 (exposure (“exposure”)), 3, 7, 14, and 28.
- For exposure level III, passive immunization with a human rabies immunoglobulin (human rabies antibody) is performed simultaneously on day 0 (20 IU/kg bw) – once.
- Furthermore, an intensive mechanical as well as chemical cleaning of the skin site / wound must always be performed.
