Incubation Time for Rabies in Humans
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Incubation Description
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An incubation period in a viral infection is the time during which the virus lays low in a person's system. The victim isn't symptomatic, and the virus can't infect others.
Typical Incubation
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The typical human rabies incubation period is about one to two months. A study in India found that 90 percent of rabies cases had incubation periods of six months or less.
Fast Incubation
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If the victim has suffered multiple or severe bites from an infected animal, the incubation period can be about two weeks.
Long Incubation
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Sometimes rabies has a long incubation---perhaps a half-decade---before the infected person sickens. A 2008 re-examination of a 1990 Australian case confirmed this.
Occurence of Long Incubation
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Long incubation periods occur in very few cases. The Indian study demonstrated that long incubation occurs only 10 percent of the time.
Post-incubation
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Rabies infects the central nervous system. After incubation, victims might have headaches, fever and depression, and then various neurological symptoms appear. Without appropriate treatment, victims are likely to die.
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