Originally published February 26 2006
Health Department provides public service article on rabies
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The St. Petersburg Public Information Officer provides information to help families protect themselves and their family pets from rabies.
Last summer in Citrus County, a rabies alert was posted for more than three months.
Rabid foxes attacked five Citrus residents between July 9 and Aug. 31.
Rabies is a virus that attacks the brain and nervous system.
Symptoms can include a change in the animal's behavior (including avoiding light), irritability or restlessness, eating unusual items, increased salivation and difficulty swallowing leading to drooling, lack of coordination, aggressiveness, convulsions and seizures.
Raccoons, bats, foxes, coyotes and skunks commonly carry the rabies virus and in the early stages may not have symptoms.
Rabbits, squirrels, hamsters, gerbils, rats and other rodents are rarely found to be infected and have not been known to cause rabies in humans in Florida.
Cats, cattle and dogs are the most frequently reported rabid domestic animals.
In humans, rabies is always fatal unless shots are given before the virus reaches the brain.
The series of preventive shots are no longer given in the abdomen and are not painful, as they were years ago.
The virus lives in saliva of infected animals, which spread the virus to other animals or humans by scratching or biting.
Keep pets' rabies vaccinations up to date.
Pets are vaccinated to prevent them from getting the disease from wildlife and passing it on to humans.
Avoid all free-roaming dogs, cats and wild animals.
Contact the Citrus County Health Department at 527-0068 if someone is bitten or scratched by any animal or bat.
A fatal infection from rabies can be prevented through treatment available at the Health Department.
To avoid animal bites, never leave young children alone with pets.
Of all bites reported last year, almost 20 percent involved children younger than 12 and almost 75 percent involved pets.
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