If you get bitten by a wild animal, tell your doctor and get a rabies vaccine. It's as stupidly effective at preventing rabies as the rabies virus is at kiling you [2].
[1] https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/rabies
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies_vaccine#Before_exposure
Still, the odds are so close to 100% lethal after symptoms that you can very honestly round up to 100%.
There appear to be some people with the ability to create antibodies to the rabies virus. Together with the Milwaukee protocol, which may keep the brain from frying itself (or do nothing, we don't know), we have the ability to turn it from a death sentence to--in a hair of cases--just a severely debilitating disease.
Or even if you "only" get scratched
Nit: If you get exposed to the infected animal’s saliva. [1] This does not need to be a bite.
> People can get rabies if they have contact with the saliva or neural tissue of an infected animal… [2]
[1] “Canadian child dies from rabies after bat found in bedroom” https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgxjnldqvdo
[2] Center for Disease Control “Rabies VIS” https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/vis/vis-statements/rabies.h...
The theory behind it is that some mammals are somewhat less likely to be carriers, but it's not a comforting thought, right? You have a somewhat lower chance of certain death than if you were bitten by a bat, so we will deny you a pretty safe vaccine.
What state is this in? If I want a prophylactic rabies shot, I can just ask my doctor to schedule one.
What they do limit is the immunoglobulin shot — that is very hard to manufacture (I think it’s developed from horses antibodies or something) and is used in large quantities based on patient weight. That’s why the gatekeep.
Try $300 to 400 without insurance [1]. It's free with most insurance, including Medicaid and Medicare Part D.
Here's a document of animals tested for rabies from 1988 to 2023 [1], and only 4 cases were not in bats. 2 in cats, 1 in a horse, and 1 in a llama.
Nevertheless there are always people freaking out on NextDoor when they see a raccoon.
[1] https://doh.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2024-05/AnimalsTested...
It's treatable with antibiotics if caught early, but still a few people a year die from it in the US. Usually in the Rocky Mountain states.
When I was reading up on this several years ago, it's because smaller animals are highly unlikely to survive an attack by another rabid animal and are therefore less likely to carry rabies (and be alive). Larger animals are more likely to survive an attack and carry rabies.
Not to mention any number of other conditions that may lead to sudden death.
Risk is an inevitable part of being alive, all we can do is minimize it. Once it's minimized to noise levels it's not really rational to do anything else.