In recent years in the province of Holguín there has been a tendency to increase of animal injuries to humans, especially by dogs and cats, agents transmitters of rabies, behavior that worries the sanitary authorities of the territory.
In this regard, the head of the Zoonosis programs of the Provincial Center of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Epidemiology of Holguín, Doctor Humberto Rivera Almaguer gives some important considerations about this disease.
What elements should Holguin families take into account to prevent rabies?
-In the last five years, we have been conducting research work because more than 8,000 injuries have been reported, in the province of province of Holguín by dogs, cats or other animals. This figure unfortunately includes four deaths between 2019 and 2021 due to rabies. If we analyze well the causes, it is determined that they were patients who did not go to the medical services on time when they were bitten by cats or dogs.
“In the face of rabies, it is essential to watch the animals that injure the person. In the case of dogs and cats, the animal is monitored for 10 days.
The technician or the hygiene graduate belonging to the neighborhood polyclinic should visit the patient who is injured and check on him/her, and see if there is any change in the behavior of the animal, any symptom suspicious of this behavior, if the sick animal is identified, the patient is admitted in hospital and the human anti-rabies treatment is performed, which consist of five vaccinations, on days 0, three, seven, seven, 14 and 21″.
However, there are frequent cases of people who have been injured by an animal and do not know the whereabouts of the animal, and do not go to the doctor; then that person is at risk, because if it is a positive animal for rabies, it can transmit it and the patient arrives with a progressive encephalitis to the medical services and then there is no solution.
“When arriving with this diagnosis to the medical services as a result of rabies transmission from an animal, it is very it is very complicated to take care of the patient because it is already in the severe form of the disease.
So the most important thing is to have the dog vaccinated against rabies, the observation of these animals for the 10 days – as established by the Ministry of Public Health, if any patient has been bitten by an animal and it is not watched, admission is decided for treatment, two or three vaccines are applied in the hospital and the remaining ones in the health area, and thus the patient is protected against this disease”.
What symptoms can make health authorities suspect the presence of rabies?
-Rabies is a viral infectious disease of the Central Nervous System, which is found in the secretions of infected animals and is transmitted to people by a bite or by contact of a wound with the saliva of a sick animal”.
“In our country the major transmitters of rabies are dogs, cats, mongooses and bats. The most common symptoms once exposed to the exposed to the virus are general malaise, headaches, fever, fear of water and fear of light, fear to the water and fear to the light, it is therefore advisable to attend as soon as possible to a health institution”.
“The Ministry of Public Health maintains a system of sanitary surveillance in domestic animals to prevent to prevent the transmission of zoonotic diseases (animal origin), in this sense, the Pedro Kourí Institute (IPK) is the center par excellence for the diagnosis of this disease”.
Do you think that the increase in animal injuries is related to the increase in the number of pets in homes?
-I think there is an increase in the number of people with animals in their homes. It has reached such a point that practically all the houses here in Holguín have a pet. Holguín coexist with a pet. I specifically want to refer to cats. The cat and the dog for many people may seem the same, but they are not. The cat is a feline and felines are hunters par excellence. That is why they go out at night to hunt bats. Sometimes the bat is positive for rabies, no one is aware of this, it transmits rabies to the cat and in turn the cat can transmit it to people.”
“When the cat has shiny eyes, with photophobia, behaves aggressively, you have to inform them to the health authorities. And if the person is person is bitten, you have to go urgently to the medical services because the last cases that we have sent to the IPK, for the epidemiological study of the cat’s brain, have tested positive for rabies.
It is not a matter of not having pets at home, but rather that those who have them assume a responsible behavior in their care, since all animals should be treated by a veterinarian, dewormed and given a correct diet to prevent aggressions. Therefore, it is necessary to be very careful with the bite of cats or dogs that are not observable, because they can trigger an unfortunate episode of rabies.
While one often refers to the care that should be taken with dogs and cats, including cats and dogs, are the bites from other animals just as dangerous?
-We recently dealt with a rare case of a rabbit bite, which, although it is not a carrier and transmitter of rabies, as there are so many changes, mutating genes and many mutating bacteria and viruses, we always have to be very attentive. If there is a bite from another animal and it is not watched, we take the sample, send it to the IPK and start treatment for the patient to predict, because the world is changing very fast and a certain disease can be caused by another type of animal, in addition to the ones we know about.
“So, in order to be safe and preserve the health of the population, we apply the vaccine to people who are injured by other types of animals that are not watched. The country has vaccines and unimaginable efforts being made to be free of human rabies”.
“These are preventable diseases and if we have the possibility of communicating with the population and that people have the knowledge that any animal that bites them has to go to the doctor, we will be preserving health and keeping the country free of a group of infectious and zoonotic diseases that exist in the world, especially in tropical countries. We can preserve health and take care of our population”.
The procedure to follow in case of aggression or injury by an animal includes the need to wash the wound as soon as possible to inactivate the virus and then go to the corresponding health center to report the incident. This is important because it allows receiving the post-exposure vaccine as soon as possible, which activates the immune system to identify and eliminate the virus from the body.
Rabies is fatal because it is an acute infectious disease of the central nervous system, i.e. the spinal cord and the brain, and its incubation period depends on the amount of virus inoculated into the skin.
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