Symptoms of Rabies
Initially, rabies exhibits flu-like symptoms. As the disease progresses, severe neurological symptoms begin to appear. Common signs include:
Fever and Headache
Nausea and aggressive vomiting
Anxiety and agitation
Confusion or hallucinations
Hyperactivity and insomnia
Difficulty swallowing and excessive saliva
Hydrophobia (fear of water due to trouble swallowing)
Aerophobia (fear triggered by air movement on the face)
Muscle weakness or partial paralysis
Once these symptoms appear, it is too late to treat the infection, and death will eventually occur. Therefore, early intervention is critical (Rabies - Symptoms & Causes - Mayo Clinic, 2025).
Phases
Rabies travels from an infected wound to your brain over time. There are several phases that the majority of people go through. They include incubation, the prodromal phase, the acute neurologic phase, and coma.
Incubation phase: The rabies virus spends days to weeks in your body before it reaches your nervous system. You don’t experience any symptoms during this time, and if you receive treatment early in the incubation period, you won’t get rabies.
Prodromal phase: RABV travels through your nerve cells into your brain and spinal cord, resulting in nerve damage as it goes. The prodromal phase starts when the rabies virus has entered your nervous system. Your immune system tries to fight back, resulting in flu-like symptoms. Nerve damage might cause tingling, pain, or numbness near the site of the wound. This phase lasts two to 10 days. There aren’t any effective treatments when rabies reaches this phase.
Acute neurologic phase: In this phase, the rabies virus starts disrupting your brain and spinal cord. About two-thirds of people experience furious rabies, with symptoms like aggression, seizures, and delirium. Others experience paralytic rabies, with weakness and paralysis progressing from the bite wound to the rest of their body. Furious rabies can last a few days to a week, while paralytic rabies can last up to a month.
Coma: Many people enter a coma in the final stages of a rabies infection, which eventually leads to death (Cleveland Clinic, 2022).
When to Seek Medical Help
If bitten or scratched by any animal, or if there is any possibility or suspicion of exposure to a potentially rabid animal, seek immediate medical attention (Rabies - Symptoms & Causes - Mayo Clinic, 2025).
Even if you're unsure whether a bite occurred, it's safer to consult a healthcare professional. For example, if you wake up to find a bat in your room, you should assume you may have been bitten. The same applies if a bat is found near someone unable to communicate clearly, such as a young child or someone living with a disability. A healthcare provider will assess the risk and determine whether post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) is needed.
There have been cases of young children getting the infection due to Bat exposure. The most recent case in Ontario, Canada, was the death of a young child because of a Bat bite. During a family trip and a stay in a cottage, the young child woke up with a live Bat in the bedroom. However, since there were no visible Bat bite marks, the parents decided not to avail themselves of any medical intervention. This case also highlighted the importance of reporting any Bat exposure (regardless of whether a bite or scratch was visible upon initial inspection). This is because in many cases, a Bat bite or a scratch can be very tiny and almost impossible to locate. Please find the link to this case below:
