What is rabies and how is it transmitted?
Rabies is an infectious viral disease that affects the nervous system of humans and other mammals. People get rabies from the bite of an animal with rabies (a rabid animal). Any wild mammal, like a raccoon, skunk, fox, coyote, or bat, can have rabies and transmit it to people. It is also possible, but quite rare, that people may get rabies if infectious material from a rabid animal, such as saliva, gets directly into their eyes, nose, mouth, or a wound.
Rabies is an infectious viral disease that invades the central nervous system of humans and other warm-blooded animals. A wide variety of mammals can contract the disease, but it is most often noticed in dogs, cats, foxes, raccoons, skunks, coyotes, bats, and livestock. Worldwide, more than 30,000 humans die of rabies each year, 99% of these cases resulting from contact with dogs. In the United States, due to highly successful dog vaccination programs, transmission from dogs is now rare, eliminating the vast majority of human cases. Rabies is nearly always transmitted by a bite, though non-bite exposures can result from contact between infected saliva or nervous tissues and open wounds or the mucous membranes of the eyes, nose, or mouth. Careless handling is the primary source of rabies exposure from bats. Rabies virus has not been isolated from bat blood, urine or feces, and there is no evidence of air-borne transmission from bats in buildings.
