We can help you locate a travel medicine clinic closest to your home. The recommendations are intended as general advice about the prevention of rabies for Canadians travelling internationally. Disease profile Rabies is a viral infection of animals that can be transmitted to humans. It is caused by a virus of the Rhabdoviridae family, which attacks the central nervous system and eventually affects the brain. The virus is usually found in the saliva of an infected animal.
Rabies is almost always fatal once symptoms occur.
Transmission Rabies can occur in any warm-blooded animal, domestic and wild. Commonly, rabies has been transmitted to humans from dogs, cats, foxes, raccoons, skunks, monkeys, wolves and bats. As well, animals having potential interactions with people such as cattle, horses and deer can acquire rabies and may transmit the disease to humans. The virus is transmitted through close contact with the saliva of infected animals, most often by a bite or scratch or by licks on broken skin or mucous membranes, such as the eyes, nose or mouth. Injury to the upper body or face poses the greatest risk of transmission.