This always puzzled me. Why don’t humans act much more aggressive or crazed like its often depicted with animals. Afaik there’s 2 types of rabies, “dumb” and “furious” so my question is more towards the 2nd type. For example, we never hear of rabies causing a human to accidentally bite another human so why is that?

  • shalafi@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Mouse bit me on my wedding night last month. My dumbass snatched him out of a trash can instead of just dumping. I may have had a few drinks. Didn’t get a whole drop of blood out of me, but he got under the skin.

    Next day, I’m seriously sweating it. OK, time to do a little research. Rabies reports around here are astonishingly rare, especially given the nature of the area. 1 in my county for all of 2023 so far. Still…

    Found out that not only is rabies crazy rare in rats, mice and lagomorphs, there are no known instances of transmission to a human. I had no idea!

    • 520@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      Rabies aren’t the only diseases wild mice can carry. Definitely get yourself checked out next time!

      • Can_you_change_your_username@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        My neighbor was a maintenance man at an apartment complex and was bitten while emptying mouse traps. He was infected with a virus that caused some kind of lymphatic disease that developed into viral meningitis. He wound up spending months in hospitals and rehab and has permanent brain damage and disability. It was treatable if he had gone to the Dr earlier but healthcare is expensive and hard to access so he decided to wait and see if it’d pass.

      • MudMan@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        Ditto for all animals. A guy from out of town was here for work one time and he tried to pet a cute stray cat he saw hanging out next door. I ended up being the designated local chaperone to take him and his dumb purple sausage finger to the hospital at 2 AM that night.

      • Drusas@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        Mice have been known to spread plague even in recent times, for example. Fortunately, it’s treatable with antibiotics.

        • shalafi@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Uh, that’s from their fleas, not bites. FFS, did no one else get through high school history? Or has education fallen this far off?

          • Drusas@kbin.social
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            11 months ago

            That’s kind of a “no duh” statement. Everybody knows fleas transmit it. The point is that it’s still around.

            • shalafi@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              For American’s, isn’t it more of a SW desert thing? Hantavirus and such?

              LOL, and a post below here is acting like, “Sorry, can’t be bothered to remember.” The various plagues were kinda important in history, don’t think many teachers are skipping over that bit.

              • Drusas@kbin.social
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                11 months ago

                I was actually thinking of Oregon. When I lived there a few years back, there were a couple of cases of people who came down with plague after handling wild mice (because of the fleas, obviously, but that should be able to go without saying).

                Hantivirus, to my knowledge, can happen anywhere but is more prevalent in the American west, including southwest.

          • Taco@lemmy.zip
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            11 months ago

            Oh no, we’re all just more concerned about affording to survive, and can’t be bothered to remember a detail about a disease from hundreds of years ago that is no longer a threat whatsoever.

      • DrRatso@lemmy.ml
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        11 months ago

        What do you mean checked out? The only checking out you can get for a rat bite is wound care and a rabies shot. Sometimes antibiotics depending on the wound (not because rat, but because bite).

        • 520@kbin.social
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          11 months ago

          I mean that’s the thing though, that rabies shot and antibiotics is a hell of a lot better than doing nothing, and if you do end up infected, improve your outlook a shit ton.

    • GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk
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      11 months ago

      The UK is officially free from terrestrial rabies.
      Which when you look into it more, means “The UK has rabid bats”. Hopefully not Seagulls or Pigeons, or we’re all screwed.