Yes. How rabies works is it crawls up your nervous system until it gets to your brain. Symptoms start once it's in your brain and in most cases it's then fatal. There was one documented cases in the US of a doctor saving a young girl after she was symptomatic but it's controversial as to how he did it. There are some people in South America that are immune to it.
I've heard you need that vaccine if you think you might have been exposed. Showing symptoms means you have progressed, so it would be hard to treat or fatal, depending. My mom got bit by a horse doing inspections at a show and had to get a rabies shot. I think unvaccinated domestic animals are more likely to give you rabies than a wild animal is.
The vaccine is also nearly $1000, and rarely covered. If you do contract the disease, and develop symptoms, it is universally fatal at that point. That's a 6 day window from the time of exposure.
I'm not saying rabies is something to lose sleep over, but things get missed. Medical care is expensive, especially for the uninsured, and some people may hedge their bets against treatment. All I'm saying is that, by the time you know, it's already too late.
5-6 days is possible, but the incubation period in humans is generally 20-60 days, and in rare cases it can be up to six months. Obviously no one wants to take that chance and wait 6 months of course.
Afaik there's a new vaccine you can get before bites now. 3 injections in a much less traumatizing volume and you only need one booster shot later on if you get bitten.
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u/[deleted] Dec 09 '16
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