this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2024
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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

The indication for testing according the CDC is a bite.

The rabies test is cheap. Could have tested the kid or the bat, but again why would they do it if there's no indication for exposure. This was the first case in the province of someone being infected with rabies inside their own home since 1967.

When you hear hoofbeats you don't think it's zebras.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You can't test the kid, only the bat. So if they didn't catch it testing is a no go.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

There's like eleven kinds of blood tests for rabies. None of them work on people, or is it by the time they work it's too late?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

By the time it's detectable it's too late.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Okay that's sort of what I thought.

So the protocol, from like an insurance coverage decision-tree standpoint, in this situation, would have been to test the bat if possible and if not possible administer the vaccine?

I was under the impression that the vaccine is pretty awful and a health ordeal in itself, and that while the dose wasn't expensive, the aftercare is.

And that is why, as I understand, the CDC protocol is only seek medical attention if there's a visible bite.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

Rabies works by slowly working its way towards your nervous system. Its pretty slow and not really active during this time and it isnt detectable at this stage. Once it hits your nervous system though it screams into overdrive and its basically fatal from that point on. That's what makes rabies so scary.