Animal Bites: Recommended Medical Treatment

Buenos Aires is a city of animal lovers and their pets. Consequently, the city and province of Buenos Aires also harbor a large population of stray or feral animals. Whenever you have a large concentration of canine and feline animals interspersed with the human population, it is inevitable that people will sustain the occasional animal bite. Appropriate treatment of an animal bite for anyone who has never received the rabies vaccine and is bitten by an animal with an unknown rabies status involves injection of human rabies antibodies at the wound site and a five injection series of rabies vaccine at day 0, 3, 7, 14 and 28. A person who has previously completed the rabies series requires only two booster shots of the rabies vaccine on days 0 and 3. In addition, a tetanus injection should be given if one has not been administered in the last five years and antibiotic may be recommended to prevent infection. Special situations do exist which may alter the treatment protocol and therefore, everyone who is bitten should be seen by a qualified medical professional as soon after the bite as is possible.

Many medical professionals (veterinarians and physicians) in the local community will inform you that there is no rabies in Buenos Aires (city and province) and it is true that there has not been a case of rabies reported in four years. However, as rabies is a rapidly fatal disease, no one should assume that their bite is from an uninfected animal or that there is no risk of rabies in Buenos Aires. This is especially true when dealing with aggressive stray or feral animals as their rabies status cannot easily be verified and there is a minute possibility of contracting rabies from these animals.

Please see the CDC’s website for info on Rabies and its prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/rabies/