Travel vaccinations are almost a necessity if you are travelling to different parts of the world. You’ll never know what you might come across that can cause you to become seriously ill, which can change your experience for your trip for the worse.

Before you head out on your trip, you can get vaccines and medications for various conditions in order to prevent your body from becoming infected. Amongst the travel vaccinations Gold Coast is one for rabies.

What Is Rabies?

Rabies is a serious and often fatal condition that is possible to get when you travel to Asia, Africa, and Central America and other nations. Depending on where you are going on your trip, a rabies vaccination might be an important part of your preparation. While rabies is preventable thanks to vaccinations, there are still tens of thousands of people around the world who die each year from rabies. Most of these people are from Asia and Africa, where treatment and prevention are not currently available on a wide scale.

Rabies is considered a “zoonotic” disease. This means the disease can be transferred from an animal to a human or another animal. The virus is found in the saliva of the infected animal and can either be transferred via a scratch or bite. Most commonly, a human who gets rabies often gets it from a wild dog. Other common animal known for carrying rabies include foxes, skunks, bats, raccoons, and other wild animals. Many animals from all over the world carry this life-threatening disease.

If you get bitten by an animal on your adventures, you should seek treatment as soon as possible. Even if you do not feel any symptoms of rabies right away, they might appear months later. Rabies’ early symptoms include fever, fatigue, and headaches. The rabies will cause more serious symptoms the longer it develops in a person’s body. These later symptoms include anxiety, insomnia, hallucinations, agitation, and drooling. In most cases, rabies that humans pick up are considered fatal, and it may lead to premature death if untreated.

Preventing Rabies with Vaccinations

Get a rabies vaccination for the next time you are travelling and your adventures involve interactions with wild and exotic animals. If you are travelling to a rural area, they may not have any vaccines available for you, so it is important to get vaccinated before your trip begins, while you have the option.

A rabies vaccination is given in three different doses, and it typically takes three to four weeks to take all three. The second dose is taken a week after the first one, and the third is taken two to three weeks after the second dose.

If you feel that you will continuously be exposed to wild animals or the rabies virus carried by animals, we recommend that you get tested on occasion for immunity to rabies and that you can take additional doses whenever needed. Please remember to schedule your vaccinations well in advance so you can get the completed dosage before your trip.

Not only can humans get vaccinated for rabies, but so can domesticated pets. Your vet can provide you a vaccination for your pet, should you choose to have him or her travel with you.