[1] Immunizing people before they are exposed is recommended for those at high risk, including those who work with bats or who spend prolonged periods in areas of the world where rabies is common.

[1] Washing bites and scratches for 15 minutes with soap and water, povidone-iodine, or detergent may reduce the number of viral particles and may be somewhat effective at preventing transmission.

[23] As rabies progresses and causes inflammation of the brain and meninges, symptoms can include slight or partial paralysis, anxiety, insomnia, confusion, agitation, abnormal behavior, paranoia, terror, and hallucinations.

[25] It refers to a set of symptoms in the later stages of an infection in which the person has difficulty swallowing, shows panic when presented with liquids to drink, and cannot quench their thirst.

For example, the G protein travels through the rough endoplasmic reticulum, where it undergoes further folding, and is then transported to the Golgi apparatus, where a sugar group is added to it (glycosylation).

[10] After the brain is infected, the virus travels centrifugally to the peripheral and autonomic nervous systems, eventually migrating to the salivary glands, where it is ready to be transmitted to the next host.

[48] Bites from mice, rats, or squirrels rarely require rabies prevention because these rodents are typically killed by any encounter with a larger, rabid animal, and would, therefore, not be carriers.

[51] In 2024, reports emerged that rabies is spreading in South African Cape fur seals, possibly making it the first outbreak documented in marine mammals.

[63] The reference method for diagnosing rabies is the fluorescent antibody test (FAT), an immunohistochemistry procedure, which is recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

[64] The FAT relies on the ability of a detector molecule (usually fluorescein isothiocyanate) coupled with a rabies-specific antibody, forming a conjugate, to bind to and allow the visualisation of rabies antigen using fluorescent microscopy techniques.

Microscopic analysis of samples is the only direct method that allows for the identification of rabies virus-specific antigen in a short time and at a reduced cost, irrespective of geographical origin and status of the host.

[65] The RT PCR assays proved to be a sensitive and specific tool for routine diagnostic purposes,[66] particularly in decomposed samples[67] or archival specimens.

Their original vaccine was harvested from infected rabbits, from which the virus in the nerve tissue was weakened by allowing it to dry for five to ten days.

[69] A recombinant vaccine called V-RG has been used in Belgium, France, Germany, and the United States to prevent outbreaks of rabies in undomesticated animals.

Oral vaccines can be safely distributed in baits, a practice that has successfully reduced rabies in rural areas of Canada, France, and the United States.

[96] However, a 2002 study has supported the protocol of precautionary administration of PEP where a child or mentally compromised individual has been alone with a bat, especially in sleep areas, where a bite or exposure may occur with the victim being unaware.

Palliative care in a hospital setting is recommended with administration of large doses of pain medication, and sedatives in preference to physical restraint.

[99] It was initially attempted in 2004 on Jeanna Giese, a teenage girl from Wisconsin, who subsequently became the first human known to have survived rabies without receiving post-exposure prophylaxis before symptom onset.

[110] Effective control and treatment of rabies in India is hindered by a form of mass hysteria known as puppy pregnancy syndrome (PPS).

Dog bite victims with PPS, male as well as female, become convinced that puppies are growing inside them, and often seek help from faith healers rather than medical services.

[113][114] High public awareness of the virus, efforts at vaccination of domestic animals and curtailment of feral populations, and availability of postexposure prophylaxis have made rabies very rare in humans in the United States.

[115] The most recent rabies death in the United States was in November 2021, where a Texas child was bitten by a bat in late August 2021 but his parents failed to get him treatment.

[117] In Switzerland the disease was virtually eliminated after scientists placed chicken heads laced with live attenuated vaccine in the Swiss Alps.

[82][118] Italy, after being declared rabies-free from 1997 to 2008, has witnessed a reemergence of the disease in wild animals in the Triveneto regions (Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia) due to the spreading of an epidemic in the Balkans that also affected Austria.

Mexico was certified by the World Health Organization as being free of dog-transmitted rabies in 2019 because no case of dog-human transmission had been recorded in two years.

[126] Despite rabies being preventable and the many successes of the years from countries such as North America, South Korea and Western Europe, Rabies remains endemic in many Southeast Asian countries including Cambodia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, North Korea, India, Indonesia, Myanmar Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.

[134] In recent years Cambodia has improved significantly in their human rabies medical practices, with clinics all over the countries being made with treatments and vaccination on hand as well as rabies-related education in school classes.

The physician Scribonius Largus prescribed a poultice of cloth and hyena skin; Antaeus recommended a preparation made from the skull of a hanged man.

[22] In ancient times the attachment of the tongue (the lingual frenulum, a mucous membrane) was cut and removed, as this was where rabies was thought to originate.

[23] In modern times, the fear of rabies has not diminished, and the disease and its symptoms, particularly agitation, have served as an inspiration for several works of zombie or similarly themed fiction, often portraying rabies as having mutated into a stronger virus which fills humans with murderous rage or incurable illness, bringing about a devastating, widespread pandemic.