At a glance

The rabies virus is mainly transmitted by mucus through bites and scratches, and wounds licked by infected animals.

When the neurotropic virus travels to the central nervous system, it replicates massively and affects peripheral nerves and then other organs.

At first, the wounds may become itchy and hurt. Then, patients feel as if they have caught a cold with such symptoms as headaches, fevers and appetite loss.

The symptoms will soon expand to uncontrolled excitement, fear of water and wind, difficulty swallowing and breathing, cerebral dysfunction, mania and spasms.

Those who contract the disease will have slight or partial paralysis, slip into a coma and eventually die of respiratory and circulatory failure.