what happens if a person gets rabies

Rabies in a person is one of the most dangerous infections that exists: once symptoms start, it is almost always fatal, but if you get preventive treatment right after a bite or scratch, the disease can usually be stopped before it begins.

Quick Scoop: What Actually Happens

Imagine rabies as a virus that “rides the nerves” from the bite wound to the brain instead of spreading through the blood. It usually comes from the saliva of an infected animal (dog, bat, raccoon, etc.) through a bite or, less commonly, a scratch or saliva into broken skin or the eyes/mouth.

• The virus stays quietly in the body for weeks to months with no symptoms (incubation period).

• Then it reaches the nervous system and brain, causing rapidly worsening brain and nerve inflammation.

• Once symptoms appear, there is currently no reliable cure and the disease is almost always deadly, usually within days to a few weeks.

The critical point: getting medical care immediately after a risky bite can almost always prevent rabies before it starts.

Step-by-Step: How Rabies Progresses in a Person

1. Exposure and Infection

This is the moment when a person is bitten or otherwise exposed.

• Main source is the saliva of an infected mammal (dogs in many countries, bats and wild animals in others).

• The virus enters through broken skin or mucous membranes (eyes, nose, mouth).

• At first, the virus stays near the site of entry, then starts moving along the nerves toward the spinal cord and brain.

If someone gets proper wound cleaning and preventive rabies shots quickly, the virus can be stopped before it reaches the brain.

2. Incubation Period (No Symptoms Yet)

• Typical length: about 2–3 months, but it can range from about 1 week to a year depending on how close the bite is to the brain and how much virus was transmitted.

• The person usually feels completely normal during this time.

Even though nothing seems wrong yet, this is the window when treatment still works very well.

3. Early Symptoms (Prodromal Phase)

Once the virus reaches the nervous system, early, nonspecific symptoms appear.

Common early signs:

• Fever, fatigue, headache, general feeling of being unwell.

• Pain, tingling, burning, or weird sensations (like pins-and-needles) at the site of the bite, even if it’s healed on the outside.

• Anxiety, irritability, or subtle changes in behavior or sleep.

This stage usually lasts a few days to about a week. By this time, the virus is in the nervous system, and standard treatments almost never work.

4. Neurologic Phase: “Furious” vs “Paralytic” Rabies

Once the brain and spinal cord are heavily affected, two main patterns can appear.

Furious Rabies (more common)

About two-thirds of symptomatic patients develop this form.

Typical features:

• Extreme agitation, restlessness, or confusion.

• Hallucinations, delirium, and periods of panic mixed with short calm moments.

• Difficulty swallowing and painful spasms in the throat when trying to drink, leading to “fear of water” (hydrophobia) because even the thought of drinking triggers spasms.

• Hypersensitivity to sound, light, air movement, or touch.

• Excess saliva and sometimes drooling or foaming because swallowing is hard.

This phase usually lasts several days up to about a week before progressing.

Paralytic Rabies (quieter, but just as serious)

The other group develops a more silent, “paralyzing” form.

Key signs:

• Weakness starting near the bite site and spreading outward.

• Gradually worsening paralysis of the limbs, then trunk, then breathing muscles.

• Less agitation and aggression; the person may appear just weak or “floppy,” which can delay diagnosis.

Paralytic rabies can stretch out for weeks, but it still almost always ends in coma and death.

5. Coma and Death

As the disease advances, the brain and spinal cord become severely inflamed.

• Many patients fall into a coma in the final stage.

• Breathing becomes weak or irregular as the respiratory muscles and brain centers fail.

• Most people die from respiratory failure or cardiac arrest, usually a few days to a couple of weeks after clear neurological symptoms appear.

At this point, care is palliative: the goal is to keep the person as comfortable and free of suffering as possible.

Can Anyone Survive Rabies?

This is where rabies is uniquely frightening.

• Once obvious symptoms begin, survival is extremely rare; the fatality rate is effectively 100% in typical cases.

• There are a tiny number of reported survivors, usually with very aggressive experimental care and often with lasting neurological problems.

• In contrast, if someone receives proper post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) before symptoms—thorough wound washing, rabies vaccine, and sometimes rabies antibodies—rabies can almost always be prevented.

So in practice: early treatment after a bite means most people never get sick at all, while late treatment after symptoms begin almost never works.

What You Should Do After a Possible Exposure

If someone is bitten or scratched by an animal that might have rabies, the situation is urgent but very treatable if handled immediately. Immediate steps:

1. Wash the wound thoroughly.
   • Use lots of soap and running water for at least 15 minutes if possible.

2. Seek medical care right away.
   • A doctor or emergency department can evaluate the risk and decide if rabies shots are needed.

3. Follow through with all recommended doses.
   • Rabies post-exposure treatment usually involves a series of vaccines over days plus rabies immune globulin for serious or high-risk exposures.

4. Report the bite if required where you live.
   • Health authorities may need to test or quarantine the animal.

These steps are extremely effective at preventing rabies if done promptly, even in regions where rabies is still common.

Why Rabies Is Still a Trending Health Topic

Even today, rabies continues to be a major global health issue.

• Tens of thousands of people, mostly in Asia and Africa, still die from rabies every year, usually from dog bites in areas with limited access to vaccines.

• In countries like the U.S. and Canada, human rabies deaths are rare thanks to pet vaccination programs and rapid access to post-exposure treatment, but bat-related exposures and rare cases still appear in the news.

• Awareness is growing through social media and forums where people share stories of near-misses after bat encounters, street dog bites, or travel exposures, which keeps “what happens if a person gets rabies” an ongoing search and discussion topic.

Mini FAQ

Does every bite cause rabies?
No. Many animals are not infected, and many bites are low risk, but you usually cannot tell by looking at the animal, so medical evaluation is essential.

Can you tell if a person has rabies just by looking at them?
Only in late stages, when symptoms are obvious; early rabies looks like a regular flu or vague illness and requires medical assessment to suspect and diagnose.

Is rabies still basically a death sentence?
If symptoms have started: almost always yes. If treated right after exposure, it’s highly preventable and people generally stay completely healthy.

Key Takeaway

If a person truly “gets rabies” in the sense of having symptoms, the infection almost always leads to coma and death despite treatment. But if someone is bitten or exposed and receives proper medical care quickly—with careful wound cleaning and the recommended rabies shots—the virus can be stopped before it reaches the brain, and the person can stay well.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.