Although the chance of domestic pets contracting rabies is very low, it is best to get a rabies vaccine within 24 hours as a precaution. The doctor advises that if someone is bitten or scratched by a cat or dog, three emergency steps should be taken immediately: First step: Wash the wound. Immediately wash the wound under running water to rinse away the virus as much as possible and squeeze out the blood.
If possible, it is best to wash with 20% soapy water continuously for 20 to 30 minutes. Then disinfect with iodine, followed by alcohol to remove the iodine, repeating this three times. Second step: Go to the local epidemic prevention department immediately to get vaccinated; do not delay for several days. The incubation period for rabies can be as short as about 10 days or as long as several years. Third step: If the wound is severely bitten, make sure to inject antiviral serum simultaneously with the vaccine.
Antiviral serum must be administered under a doctor's guidance after a test dose. For general bites, such as mild abrasions without bleeding, scratches, or damaged skin being licked, intramuscular rabies vaccine injections should be given into the deltoid muscle on days 0 (day of first injection), 3 (day 4, and so on), 7, 14, and 30, one vial each time; children use the same dosage, and the injection site can be the anteromedial thigh muscle.
For severe bites, in addition to the above vaccine schedule, double doses of vaccine should be given on days 0 and 3, and at day 0, rabies antiserum (40 IU/kg body weight) or rabies immunoglobulin (20 IU/kg body weight) should be infiltrated locally into the bite site and injected intramuscularly. Combined use of antirabies serum and vaccine is more effective than vaccine alone. Antirabies serum must be used within 48 hours of the severe bite and injected separately from the vaccine site, and an allergy test must be done before injection.
All patients who receive combined antirabies serum or immunoglobulin must receive 2-3 booster vaccine injections after completing the full vaccine course, specifically on day 15 and day 75 or on days 10, 20, and 90 respectively. In seven situations—such as receiving antirabies serum one day before vaccine, chronic patients, immunodeficiency, taking immunosuppressants, elderly, severe malnutrition, and starting immunization more than 48 hours after a bite—a 2-3 times larger vaccine dose should be given at the initial vaccination, divided into several injection sites for better immune effect.
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