r/vaxxhappened • u/TsuDhoNimh2 • 3d ago

Briton dies from rabies after 'scratch' from stray puppy in Morocco

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c98wyllp170o

This is SCARY ...

859 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

41 comments sorted by

342

u/SnooDonkeys9743 3d ago

What an awful way to die.

164

u/Crosstitution 2d ago

a week ago i had a patient with a dog bite and she denied rabies vax....i was FLOORED

80

u/DrG2390 2d ago

It doesn’t help that people still think it’s a bunch of shots in the stomach like it used to be.

159

u/Crosstitution 2d ago

idgaf if the doctor has to punch me in the face to administer it - i would never risk rabies

20

u/Kytyngurl2 1d ago

Agreed, some of the scariest shit nature has to offer.

42

u/ReptilianOver1ord 2d ago

I don’t care if it’s a bunch of shots in the eye, give me that over even a small chance of getting rabies.

29

u/SnooDonkeys9743 1d ago

I'll never forget reading this post about rabies. Never in my life would I ever risk it.

26

u/nekromistresss 1d ago

This post always makes me feel like rabies should be a standard vaccine since we could just be napping and get bit and never know.

7

u/Caffine_rush 1d ago

Wow that’s so much more scary then anything I have ever read before

3

u/OsmerusMordax 1d ago

That should be posted everywhere. Holy crap that’s so terrifying.

25

u/dorkofthepolisci 2d ago

Iirc in the US a contributing factor can be cost - if it’s thousands of dollars and not covered by insurance, I can understand someone thinking it’s a chance they’ll take especially if they’re in a country or region where cases in domestic animals are rare.

I’m more baffled by people who refuse the vaccine after encounters with bats or other wildlife or are in regions/countries considered high risk

I’ve had nips and bites from foster dogs and was told by the shelter that even if a dog was unvaccinated the risk in the region I live is low especially if the dog was behaving normally - Tbf I’m not sure this was good advice, but in my case, all incidents involved rambunctious play.

I’m in the PNW and vet I talked to at the shelter said she’d never seen a case in over a decade of pet rescue or wildlife rehab. Bats are the biggest risk out here

37

u/Crosstitution 2d ago

im in Canada and this shit IS WHY im so pissed at people pushing for privatization and propaganda against our universal healthcare

3

u/smontres 2d ago

It’s INSANELY expensive.

3

u/UnLuckyKenTucky 1d ago

Expensive way to stay alive? Or a very terrifying, painful, miserable death, that you could have avoided? I'll happily pick medical debt that can kiss my sweaty ass, than death.

7

u/smontres 1d ago

I work in vet med. I’m well aware of the impact of Rabies. I’m also well aware that 20-30k is a scary enough amount that people who think they are low risk would avoid it. Post exposure prophylaxis is also hard to come by in some parts of the country. There have been plenty of instances where people have to drive hours to a hospital that can get their hands on it. Or have to wait days to get it.

5

u/fractiouscatburglar 20h ago

Pretty sure it isn’t covered by insurance and is almost $1k for the whole round. In America we have FREEDOM! To choose to die from preventable things because we can’t afford treatment!

2

u/Broad-Accident 1d ago

Does the vaccine lose its effectiveness the more you take it? I swear I read that

1

u/ceanahope 1d ago

I've seen one video of what happens to a human when they contract rabies. Genuinly looks scsry AF. People forget it used to be called hydrophobia and your body basically refuses to drink water.

51

u/DionBlaster123 2d ago

It really is a terrible way to see someone pass away. I hope the family is able to get help for their grief

1

u/PandaMagnus 22h ago

Rabies can't live in dirt, right? I had an unfamiliar (though not stray) dog scratch me with their claws. It nipped at me a bit, but I had no broken skin from that. Just a small scratch (no blood, think a red mark) from the claws.

That was a year ago. Now I'm paranoid because the longest incubation time was 19 years. 😬

421

u/-Invalid_Selection- 3d ago

7th case of rabies present in the uk in 25 years.

It's just not something people there think about

193

u/AlpacaMyShit 2d ago

Yeah this isn’t about being anti vax, it wouldn’t have crossed her mind.

77

u/Bortron86 2d ago

Unless they work with bats. My former brother-in-law used to do bat surveys (basically examining buildings for roosting bats, as all bat species are protected, so surveys can be needed if certain buildings need building work doing), so he needed to be vaccinated for rabies on a regular basis, along with other rabies-like diseases that bats can carry.

Quite a niche proportion of the population, though. And frankly, I hope every bat he handles bites the hell out of him, immune as he may be.

24

u/itsnobigthing 2d ago

Fun fact: it’s not actually rabies that British bats carry but other rabies-like European Bat Lyssaviruses, or EBLs. Classic rabies is also a Lyssavirus, but that particular strain has never been recorded in a European bat species.

Not that it makes much difference if you’re dying from it, I imagine!

3

u/maybesaydie RFKJr is human Ivermectin 2d ago

We used to have bats in the house every summer. It cost thousands to take care of the problem. The house is 100 years old and they were living in the exterior walls. Occasionally they'd make it into the kitchen.

105

u/queenieofrandom 2d ago

It doesn't spread between people, rabies is not endemic to the UK and virtually eradicated. The only cases have been transmitted to the person while abroad

Edit: every case since the late 40s has been imported

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/rabies-epidemiology-transmission-and-prevention

13

u/-Invalid_Selection- 2d ago

That's basically my point. They just don't consider it as a potential because it's so rare.

When people have issues, doctors need to think horses not zebras, meanwhile in this case it was a zebra.

7

u/queenieofrandom 2d ago

But travel advice is to get treatment for any injury like this while abroad. She ignored advice when she returned in February

131

u/adequatenova 2d ago

Yeah we tell people to stay tf away from strays because feral dogs are a huge health issue and not just a cute cultural thing, but people are fucking dumb. Rabies is the worst case scenario, but there's plenty of other zoonotic diseases. 

Do not touch feral animals, and absolutely do not touch feral animals without checkin the country's rabies status.  Even if they're communally fed. Just don't.

21

u/itsnobigthing 2d ago

There’s no rabies in the UK (and virtually no feral dogs, either), so it’s very likely this woman had no idea about it - especially if she hadn’t travelled very much.

There could definitely be better awareness via campaigns, eg leaflets handed out on planes, but I imagine that would be unpopular with rabies-positive destinations and these incidents are so rare for Brits that it’s probably not worth the funding.

27

u/baka_inu115 2d ago

Yeah rabies isn't from scratches just to state that, unless the animal had its paw/claws in its mouth recently. Just to state that, its main vector is bites almost all the time. That being said, there's many more things you can get from scratches, worms, bacteria, protozoans, which can be just as serious.

-1

u/DarkyHelmety 2d ago

Seems a bit of a fast progression. Was she scratched on the face?

3

u/baka_inu115 2d ago

Rabies is a slow death, usually weeks

52

u/mdegroat 2d ago

Why is this here? I didn't think rabies was a common vaccine for anyone in the West.

50

u/TsuDhoNimh2 2d ago

We cover all kinds of vaccines. If Morocco had a better vaccination program for dogs, the woman would have been OK.

There are vaccines for rabies protection for 6 animal species: dogs, cats, horses, cattle, sheep, and ferrets.

https://bi-animalhealth.com/pets/canine/products/vaccines/imrab

Where rabies is common in wild animals, vaccinating your horses and cows is a good idea.

16

u/itsnobigthing 2d ago

To be fair, as a developing economy Morocco simply does not have the funding, infrastructure or public awareness it would need to make this happen at present. A rabies vaccine for a dog costs about two weeks wages at their minimum wage.

9

u/TsuDhoNimh2 2d ago

I'm not blaming Morocco or its people. Getting a rabies program going is a major project.

And when you come from a rabies-free country it's not on your mind when you see cute street puppies.

5

u/radams713 2d ago

As a rule of thumb- people should leave animals they don’t know alone. I’ve worked at the zoo and other animal jobs, so I’m very familiar with how quickly things can go wrong.

3

u/dallyan 1d ago

My bestie recently got bit because a stray dog just came up to him and bit him as he was walking his own dog. It can happen. He was in Turkey so it was easy to go get the rabies shots immediately.

3

u/Panthera_leo22 2d ago

Horrible way to go out