What is the incubation period for rabies?
• The incubation period ranges from 10 days to a year, depending on the amount of virus introduced, the amount of tissue involved, the host immune mechanisms, and the distance the virus must travel from the site of inoculation of the central nervous system. • Thus, the incubation period is generally shorter with face wounds than with leg wounds. Immunization early in the incubation period frequently aborts the infection. What clinical symptom did this patient have which is classic for rabies (but is not always present)? Refusal of liquids with apparent fear of water (agoraphobia) is a classically described symptom of rabies. How do you make a laboratory diagnosis of rabies? • Laboratory diagnosis of rabies in animals or deceased patients is accomplished by indirect or direct demonstration of virus in brain tissue or scalp biopsy. • Viral antigen can be demonstrated rapidly by immunofluorescence procedures. • Intracerebral inoculation of infected brain tissue or secretions into suckling
