Rabies

Last weekend was bitten quite lightly on the back of the leg by one of the local dogs here who is normally quite friendly and did not think much of it till the next day it quite severely bit one of the neighbours on the back of the thigh.

Decided to go and get my bite looked at..........someone suggested the local Valencia clinic but upon visiting there was told sorry vaccine out of stock and was given a referal to the holy child hospital in town.

Went to the holy child hospital and was given a consultation.....looked at my leg from about a metre away and had a quotation made out for 40,000+ to be treated fror rabies..........I nearly fell over and could not wait to get out of there.

Some one else suggested the provincial hospital so the next morning went there about 7.30 am as was told there was a priority number system and we got number 19......waited till about 10.00 am to get called in for a interview and got a appointment to come back and see the doctor at 1.00pm so we went off and relaxed and had some lunch.

At this point I would like to thank the staff there who were very nice and helpfull even though they had their hands full with the sheer number of people who were at the animal bite treatment centre.

Come back at one pm and were given the first appointment to see the doctor who was a very nice helpfull lady doctor who give a free consultation and put me on a course of 4 injections which the first 3 were free and the 4th injection price will depend on what price I can get the needed vials from the pharmacy for.

The consultation room was very clean and airconditioned as well as the treatment room where the first 2 needles were given one in each arm and will be going back saturday morning for the next free treatment.

 

When i was bitten i was told to watch the dog if he started looking sick get myself to the hospital. I have heard many times that the dog dies can anyone ad to this

 

I have seen it once, in the province of Biliran, where a dog started to change personality and bite people and other dogs and started to get very angry (mad) and the locals formed a brigade of bolo users to chase him down and cut his head off. The local fol informed us to stay indoors and keep our dogs caged while they chased down the 'mad' dog. Did it have rabies? I expect so, but no one will ever know. We only know that it was dealt with in the Philippine way.

EDIT: When my spouse was bitten, 6 years ago now, I bought some anti rabies serum at Mercury Drugs using a prescription from my doctor who gave the injections. Quick and simple and 1,000 pesos at the time, but it beats the lines and bureaucracy of the provincial hospital. Doc said there was enough serum for 10 anti rabies injections but that is the minimum quantity they sell and it does not keep long and needs refrigeration. Your mileage may vary.

 

Wow, this is eye opening. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

The reason Holy Child gave you such a high quote is because post exposure rabies treatment is really expensive.

Take a look at these links.

The Costs of Not Dying From Rabies — The Billfold

Fox news: After possible rabies exposure, Southwood bite victims face costly treatment - C-VILLE Weekly

Rabies shots come with sticker shock

And some quotes from the last article.

The immune globulin is a big reason rabies treatment is expensive.

Williams, the state veterinarian, said making the globulin is a complicated and time-consuming process. It starts with a blood donation from someone who has been vaccinated against rabies or who has been exposed and received treatment. The rabies antibodies in that blood are isolated, any other pathogens are removed, and the globulin bottled for use.

Demand for the vaccines isn't particularly high, Williams said, making it a bit of a niche product. It's not produced in mass quantities as some vaccines are, and there's little competition. Only two companies make the vaccines and the globulin.
​

This "stuff" was most likely not provided as part of your treatment. You were given vaccines. The expensive stuff is a stopgap which gives your body the ability to fight off the rabies infection before your body is able to develop it's own defense from the vaccine.

That's the difference between being vaccinated and being treated. Vaccinations vs. antidote.

This is a bit of a wake-up call given that there are so many stray dogs here. Get your rabies vaccinations now so that you don't get badly dinged after a bite.

Doing a Google search, it appears to be highly unlikely that you have rabies because rabies infections are rare here. If you were worried about it, you would need to bite the bullet and go for the expensive treatment (it appears there is a window for treatment) and quarantine the dog. More Googling, if the dog has rabies, it has something like 10 days to live. That's outside the window for getting treatment though. It appears there is no test for rabies aside from waiting until the animal dies and doing tests on its brain.

Again, this is all just a quick search. Thanks again for bringing this up.

 

From what I have read, the incubation period for rabies differs, meaning the dog could still look the same after you have already reached the point of no return. Better to get vaccine. Better safe than sorry.

I shot a rabid skunk once. It was acting very atypical. It didn't try to get away nor did it threaten or try to spray me but just came at me slowly. It was a pain in the but gathering enough brushwood to cremate it as I couldn't just leave the carcass.

 

The WHO has an excellent resource for rabies information.

WHO | Guide for post-exposure prophylaxis

It looks like the doctor who gave you the 40K quote wasn't wrong, but he apparently didn't do a good job of explaining the situation.

You need to get treatment ASAP. With no reliable tests and no animal, you can only play it safe, take the patient at their word and administer the antidote.

However, as previously mentioned. Rabies is rare enough here that the risk is probably low.

 

the quote from holy child was for approx p7000 for rabies Ig Berirab and p1299 for rabies vovive indirob shot then plus about p1200 for tetnus shots and the rest of the p40,000 was apparently for the stay in the facility for the day while the shots were given during the day.............thats what I can understand in the writing on the quotations anyway.

update on the dog......apparently the locals chased it down and shot it as the other guy who got bitten was a local.

 

and there must be some rabies here as the sheer number of people at that animal bite treatment centre each day must testify...........one family of 5 people there had all come for shots as they had all been bitten by the same dog.