Rabies is a viral disease that is fatal if medical care is not received promptly. It is zoonotic, meaning it can spread between animals and humans.
Rabies is transmitted through the saliva of infected animals, usually via bites, scratches, or direct contact with mucous membranes – for example, eyes, mouth or open wounds. The rabies virus affects the central nervous system, causing severe brain disease and death.
Rabies is a significant public health problem, killing an estimated 59,000 people a year, mainly in Africa and Asia. It mainly affects poorer people.
Symptoms of rabies usually take two to three months to appear, though they can appear after a few days or not for several months or years. The initial symptoms of rabies can be generic, such as fever, pain and unusual tingling at the wound site.
There are two forms of rabies: furious and paralytic. Furious rabies results in hyperactivity, excitable behaviour, hallucinations, lack of coordination, hydrophobia (fear of water) and aerophobia (fear of drafts or fresh air), and death occurs after a few days due to cardio-respiratory arrest.
Paralytic rabies accounts for about 20 per cent of cases, runs a longer course, and presents with gradual paralysis of the muscles, starting from the wound site, eventually leading to a coma and death.
Rabies is almost always fatal once symptoms appear. Clinical rabies can be managed but is very rarely cured, and not without severe neurological deficits. Even with aggressive medical intervention, most survivors suffer severe and permanent neurological after-effects and poor functional outcomes. Rabies is difficult to test for until the final stages of the disease, because of the pattern of the virus’s movements through the body.
Rabies is spread through the saliva of infected mammals. This usually occurs through bites or scratches, or direct contact with mucous membranes (eyes, mouth, or open wounds). Dogs are responsible for 99 per cent of human rabies cases. Other animals that can transmit rabies include bats, raccoons, and foxes. In the Americas, where rabies is mostly controlled among dogs, bats are the primary source.
If you’ve been bitten, scratched or licked by an animal that may have rabies, medical attention should be sought immediately. Do not wait until you return home to seek medical advice. Rabies can be prevented if treatment is received quickly. Treatment typically includes:
This is known as post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) and is the emergency response to a rabies exposure, preventing the virus from entering the central nervous system. A full PEP course is recommended depending on the severity of the exposure.
Treatment is very effective at preventing rabies if administered promptly, and is nearly 100 per cent effective. Rabies cannot be treated once symptoms appear. If you had treatment abroad, contact your GP when you get back to the UK to check if any more treatment is needed.
Human rabies is extremely rare in the UK. If you are travelling to a country where the disease is endemic, stay away from stray or unattended animals, do not touch or feed animals, and do not attract stray animals by dropping litter or feeding them.
The best way to prevent rabies is to make sure your pets are up-to-date on their rabies vaccines and keep away from wildlife. Washing bites and scratches immediately with soap and water and seeking medical care is also important.
You can check whether a country is rabies free here: cdc.gov/rabies
Vaccinating dogs, including puppies, through mass vaccination programmes, is the most cost-effective strategy for preventing rabies in people, as this stops transmission at its source.
Rabies is thought to have existed for millennia but the first vaccine against the disease was not developed until the 1880s when Louis Pasteur tested it on dogs. It was first used on a human in 1885 when the mother of nine-year-old Joseph Meister begged the legendary scientist to use it on her son who had been bitten by a rabid dog. Meister was given 12 doses of the vaccine over 10 days and survived.
There have been no human cases of rabies acquired in the UK since 1902 – although there have been several imported cases of the disease. The most recent case was in June 2025 when the UK Health Security Agency announced that a UK traveller had died following contact with a stray dog in Morocco. Between 2000 and 2024 there have been six cases of rabies among returning travellers reported in the UK.
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