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Paul Thomas's avatar

I went to China in 2017 - my second visit, this time travelling entirely independently. I had had the rabies inoculation before I left NZ. Part of my journey was visiting a small remote community in NW China. When I was walking in the town I was warned about a pack of wild dogs on the perimeter and sure enough they were there and charged aggressively towards me. Well I thought this wasn’t going to end well and although I had my rabies injection the last thing I wanted to happen was to get bitten or badly mauled. I a split second I bent down and picked up some stones to through at the pack as my defence against the pack and I went to throw one and miraculously they retreated and scattered - whew. But things could have been quite different.

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Cindy's avatar

🤔 David Farrier (NZ journalist) wrote in his Webworm substack about being bitten by a squirrel in the USA & all the medical kerfuffle that followed for someone used to the NZ Health system - most Kiwis don't have rabies on their radar unless going to what are seen as danger spots, and of course who would suspect a cute squirrel? (to be fair - he was trying to feed it so wasn't ambushed 😁) Not sure how rabies prevention will figure in the current health prevention scheme under RK Jnr ⁉️

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Dr Gary Payinda's avatar

The RFK situation would be laughable if it wasn't so dire.

I dont believe any rodent (mice, rats, squirrel) has ever transmitted rabies to a human.

Bats and skunks are another story.

But the real thing to worry about is dogs in India. Rabies cases abound there. As well as rabies deaths of course.

Gave me a new respect for why so many people worldwide don't automatically and casually pet strange dogs.

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Leonie Caskey-Hatton's avatar

Thank you for the information Gary.

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