Although there are exaggerations here, we can realize that it is important to get rabies vaccine promptly after being bitten by an animal. Generally speaking, once rabies develops, it progresses very quickly, mostly in 3-5 days, rarely more than 10 days, and the death rate is almost 100%. Therefore, if you are going to get a rabies vaccine, it is important to do so in a timely manner. Today we will discuss the question of when to get rabies vaccine. 1. What is rabies? Rabies is an acute zoonotic infectious disease caused by the rabies virus with a very high death rate. The typical clinical manifestations of rabies are initial sensitivity to sound, light, wind and other stimuli and a feeling of tightness in the throat, and entering the excitement phase may be manifested as extreme terror, fear of water, fear of wind, episodes of pharyngeal muscle spasms, respiratory distress, etc. Finally, the spasms stop and various kinds of paralysis occur, and death can occur rapidly due to respiratory and circulatory failure. Human rabies is mainly caused by the bite or scratch of a diseased animal or by mucosal infection, and under certain conditions can also be transmitted through respiratory aerosols. The saliva of an infectious animal contains rabies virus. The main infectious animals are dogs (more than 90%), followed by cats. 2. What is the rabies vaccine? The rabies vaccine is a vaccine given to people after being bitten by an animal to prevent rabies infection. There were many types of rabies vaccines for human use in the past, and nowadays cell culture vaccines are mostly used at home and abroad. China is now using refined VERO cell rabies vaccine and refined gopher kidney cell rabies vaccine, concentrated gopher kidney cell rabies vaccine has been banned. 3.Time to inject rabies vaccine After being bitten or scratched by an animal, it is recommended that you follow the rabies bite treatment, clean the wound as soon as possible, and go to the hospital to inject rabies vaccine in a timely manner. The earlier the rabies vaccination time, the better. The best time to inject the vaccine is within 24 hours after being bitten. In general, a course of rabies vaccine requires 5 shots, with a specific schedule of 1 intramuscular injection each on days 0, 3, 7, 14 and 28. Day 0 is the day of the first vaccination, then the rest and so on. 4.When is the rabies vaccine effective? If the vaccine is given more than 24 hours before the vaccine takes effect, that is, before the vaccine stimulates the body to produce sufficient immunity, the vaccine can be effective, but the effect is not necessarily good. For people who have been exposed for a long time and have not received rabies vaccine for various reasons, the vaccine should be given as soon as it is available, as in the case of people who have just been exposed, so that the vaccine can take effect before the onset of the disease, when the dose of the first shot or two shots should be doubled. Rabies immunoglobulin or anti-rabies serum may also be used if not more than 7 days old.