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I'm pretty sure they would have, and so would the tour company.
Of course, that is assuming the young woman even went to a travel health clinic before her trip. Since there are no mandatory vaccines she would have needed to be admitted to the Philippines, she may not have. She might have just hopped on a plane and gone.
Yes, it’s a series of three immunizations given over a one month interval. It doesn’t eliminate the need for post- bite treatment, but the post-bite treatment is simpler (2 doses of vaccine given 3 days apart instead of immediate injection of rabies immune globulin at the bite site plus a series of four immunizations), and the treatment doesn’t have to be given immediately. So it buys you time to get to a location where you can be properly treated. (In some parts of the world it could take a week or more to get back to a place where rabies vaccine is available.)
I was bitten by a pit bull last year. No real drama, just some small puncture wounds as I tried to get our vizsla away....
No real drama?? Some small puncture wounds? If that'd happened to me I would have s*** my pants. You must have nerves of steel. And I mean that in the nicest possible way.
NOBODY at the HOSPITAL noticed anything or even ASKED--- have you been out of the country lately....or noticed the bites and asked???
I think they did eventually, but she already had symptoms, hence why she went to the hospital or saw any doctor prior to that. She was already dead, essentially. Once you show even the first symptom, there is no cure. She should have gotten the vaccine ASAP after the bite, while in the Philippines (I'm pretty sure the vaccine is available there??).
Honestly, and this may sound harsh, but what happened is entirely on her. There was nothing the doctors could have done, whether they realized it was rabies right away when she presented with the symptoms or whether it took them days to diagnose. It is so important to research your vacation destination, especially if it's a developing country because there are usually more health risks/sanitation issues in those types of places. She should have known about the high[er than what she's used to, at least] rate of rabies in dogs in the Philippines, she should have went for medical attention right away upon receiving the bites and if that didn't work somehow, straight away when she got home. It seems it took her a few weeks to experience symptoms, so she had some time, but she simply didn't know the risk.
Rabies is mentioned on the CDC website as a risk for the country. I know this is a US site but I'm sure other governments provide similar warning services. https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destina...ne/philippines All one needs to do is check this site for health risks, super easy. This was preventable. I googled "Philippines health risks" and this was among the first results.
As a side note, I really wish developing countries were more on top of these easily preventable but serious diseases. Other countries have managed to nearly or actually eradicate rabies, and at least keep it controlled in most animal populations. Yet some countries cannot get it together enough to raise awareness, vaccinate animals, try to control stray populations. This stuff is preventable. I know developing countries struggle for many reasons but I also know there can be a ton of corruption and misuse of funds.
NOBODY at the HOSPITAL noticed anything or even ASKED--- have you been out of the country lately....or noticed the bites and asked???
I doubt there were any real bites to notice. It was several weeks after she returned from her trip before she developed symptoms and sought out medical care, and the bites would be better described as nips that broke the skin (which is why she thought nothing of them when they happened and just put some antiseptic on them and promptly forgot about them). Who hasn’t been nipped by a puppy on occasion? We’re not talking about Cujo viciously mauling her here.
And if the hospital did ask about foreign travel, they were no doubt thinking primarily about exposure to other tropical diseases that can cause neurological symptoms and which are far more common, such as West Nile or Dengue or Chikungunya. Until the bite history is reported or the patient develops the more classic symptoms of rabies encephalopathy (such as pharyngeal spasms when trying to swallow, or extreme agitation), the foreign travel history doesn’t help much in making the diagnosis.
Diagnosing a rare disease (which mercifully rabies is in the developed world) simply isn’t as easy and straightforward as you seem to think it is. Fortunately, this isn’t a disease where prompt diagnosis makes any difference. Unfortunately, that’s because the disease is essentially 100% fatal once symptoms develop.
JerseyGirl415 is right: this unfortunate young girl is ultimately the victim of her own lack of awareness. If she’d known about the rabies risk in the Philippines and had either left the puppy alone or had quickly sought out post-exposure rabies prophylaxis after the puppy nipped her, she’d be alive today.
They told us this at the airport in Puerto Rico. They might be cute but they will kill you
Out of idle curiosity, I looked up what the CDC had to say about rabies in Puerto Rico.
A Puerto Rican man died in 2015 of rabies from an infected mongoose. The U.S. Dept of Agriculture tested mongooses for rabies and found that up to 40% of those tested had rabies. Other exposures have resulted from mongooses biting dogs that bite humans.
But if you really want to be grossed out... (Warning! Sensitive people should skip this!)
In 2017, two people in Florida reported finding a bat in the bag of salad they had eaten the previous day. Both were given post-exposure prophylaxis and they didn't become infected.
Hmm. I don't know about you but I think I would shake everything out of the salad bag into a colander and wash it thoroughly before eating.
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