In September 2022, a man in Hebi, Henan Province was suddenly bitten by a yellow dog on his way home from school. When they arrived at the hospital, they found that there were already a long queue at the door of the rabies vaccination room, and more than 40 people who came to vac

Everyone said that they had never provoked stray dogs that bit people. Everyone was suddenly attacked by stray dogs without any warning. Some people were bitten by their fingers and palms, and some were bitten hard on their legs. Seeing so many people in the hospital where the same dog went to, many people panicked. Could this dog have rabies ?

At present, this stray dog ​​has been arrested by the police, but whether the injured dog suffers from rabies needs further testing. As the matter ferments, some netizens asked, why do cats and dogs bite people when they suffer from rabies, but other animals don’t?

has been misunderstood for many years, but dogs are really not the source of the virus

There is a misunderstanding here. Many people believe that since it is called rabies, then dogs must be the host of rabies virus. Canines originally carry rabies virus, so they will only suffer from rabies after being bitten or scratched by dogs. If you really think so, then dogs will be so unfair.

Although most rabies viruses do rely on canines to spread, it does not mean that dogs are the source of the virus. The truth is that rabies is a zoonotic disease, and dogs carry the rabies virus because they are attacked by virus carriers. Therefore, canines are just transit stations for virus transmission and one of the victims of rabies.

In addition to cats and dogs, foxes, wolfs, bats, skunks and other animals will carry rabies virus . The virus strains in their bodies are mostly transmitted through saliva, such as animals can spread rabies during fighting and licking each other.

So, who was the original host of rabies virus? It's actually a bat. Bats have become famous because they were revealed to be the source of the new coronavirus. What you don’t know is that it is also the source of the rabies virus.

As early as 1911, scientists discovered rabies virus in the body of vampire bat . In addition, they also found many viruses with extremely high mortality rates such as Ebola .

There are so many viruses in bats, which are mainly related to their long-term living habits. Most of the foods bats eat are organisms living in dark and humid environments. These organisms contain many viruses. Over time, thousands of viruses accumulate in bats. is like a living virus culture dish. As long as an animal touches or is bitten, it is very likely to become the next virus carrier.

Although most bats live in remote and cold caves and only appear at night, viruses still have ways to spread through bats. As long as animals enter the area where bats live and accidentally have contact with them, they are likely to have become the next virus spreader.

is also a mammal. Why do dogs bite people when they are infected with rabies virus, but bats will not get sick?

Why don’t bats get sick and bite

In fact, the biggest reason why bats don’t get sick and bite is that they won’t be infected by the rabies virus at all. Why do you say that?

After the rabies virus invades human or animal bodies, it will not attack immediately, but will hide itself quietly, which is what we often call the "incubation period". At this time, it is difficult to quickly discover immune cells in the body . Often, the immune system only reacts after the virus has entered the nervous system and begins to reproduce.

After the rabies virus attacks the nervous system, it is likely to cause problems such as mental disorder, auditory hallucination and vision. At this time, the sick dog is in a state of excitement and has unclear consciousness, and will attack people.

In order to eliminate viruses that have been injected into the internal organs, the immune system began to kill, releasing too many inflammation cells, whether it is invading viruses or the human body's own cells, they will all be killed.Although this can resist the invading virus, it also causes damage to human tissues and the body experiences life-threatening inflammatory reactions, and eventually the host dies because the body cannot withstand these reactions.

In this regard, bats' immune systems appear more professional. They can suppress their inflammation and prevent themselves from being controlled by the rabies virus.

The immune system in the bat is in a low-level preparedness state. When a virus invades, it can respond in a timely manner. If it encounters a virus with higher risk, the immune system only needs to be fine-tuned to effectively resist the virus without excessive immune response.

The latest research by Chinese scientists found that an antiviral immune channel in bats is suppressed, and even if the immune cells in their bodies need to overreact, they will be quickly suppressed.

Moreover, the normal body temperature of human is between 36-37.2℃, while the body temperature of bats is as high as 38-41℃. Although viruses can still survive at high body temperature, there is no way to reproduce in bats. The number of rabies viruses is controlled, so the virus will neither be eliminated by bats nor pose a threat to bats.

Therefore, even if there is rabies virus in the bats, it will not occur, and they will not be controlled to bite people frantically.

Bats will also spread the rabies virus

Although bats will not actively bite people due to rabies, they will also bite people to spread the virus if they are forced to do so.

In June 2010, 18-year-old boy Sun Zhongqi suddenly felt pain in his right hand muscles, and then he developed a high fever, finger and upper limb pain. At first, he thought he was just a common cold, but after a few days of continuous injection, he still did not improve. A few days later, Sun Zhongqi was transferred to Yanbian Hospital. After the doctor checked, he found that he had viral encephalitis.

Just one day later, Sun Zhongqi developed symptoms such as confusion and fever. During the examination, the doctor found that he was very sensitive to light reflection and had a strong reaction to sounds such as wind. He was probably bitten by some insect or animal and was infected with the virus.

It turned out that in early June, a small animal flew into the shop where Sun Zhongqi worked. Under the dim light, he did not recognize what it was. He thought it was an ordinary bird, so he just caught it. It was not until he accidentally bit his finger by a bat that he discovered that it was a bat. But he never cared about it, but never thought that this became the reason for him to get infected with the virus.

Helplessly, the best time for treatment has passed, the virus has penetrated into the human body. A month later, Sun Zhongqi died because of his excessive condition and failed to treat it.

However, in my country, there are few cases of bat injuries. Moreover, after the injured were injected with rabies vaccine in and treated, most of the victims have been cured, and there are very few cases that have caused murders, so there are no need to panic. However, when we encounter bats, we should try to keep a distance and not get close at will, and we should not catch them with bare hands to avoid being scratched by bats.

At present, rabies mostly occur in stray cats and dogs. Therefore, in order to effectively block the spread of the virus, it is necessary to resist abandoning pets at will from the root and control stray animals in a reasonable way to reduce the risk of disease transmission, rather than simply attribute all mistakes to animals.