Dear Doctor,
I had scratch by a dog in my locality nearly 8 years back and got no vaccinated myself because honestly on that time I was not fully aware about the decease. I am not confident that the scratch was by nail or teeth but I remember that the scratch was so mild, no bleeding only reddish colored.
I remember the dog was sleeping and I unwillingly step on the dog and the dog was just run away . After when I went in my room I found there was a scratch symbol below my knee. Unfortunately could not watch the dog next.
After all I suddenly found an article from an internet that written incubation period of rabies can be many years. As soon as I notice the article I started to feel fear and anxiety. However, then I went to a GP he gave me advice that it is impossible to get rabies after an year, but I did not know why I still felt fear again I asked some Doctors but most of the Doctors suggest me that incubation period cannot be longer than a couple of years but few doctors suggest it can occurred by several years also. Moreover, I went Pestuer Institure at Kolkata(Rabies Research Center) the person (administrator) told me same as a couple of years max. Also told that if any doctor prescribe that rabies can occurred after several years that means they do believe theoretically only not practically. Finally I dropped a mail to APCRI(Rabies organization) the expert replied same as only couple of years not more than that. Beside he also confirm that "There is no documented case for rabies after 10 years. You may have read some reports in the internet that some persons gave a history that they were bitten many years ago and later they developed Rabies. There is no confirmation that they were bitten 10 or 15 or 20 years back. They may have forgotten that they were exposed to a dog a couple of years back, but they only remember being bitten by a dog 20 years back."
Now I don’t control my mind toward the positive reply given by doctors and experts but why my mind tends to believe "if I would become rabies as some physician said for longer incubation? If the dog was infected ?"
Please suggest me is it my anxiety or normally any person can think like me if they had same incident? Trust me I cannot understand which one I do believe and which one actually is correct. Please suggest me how would I get rid from this fear and anxiety, I don’t want to die now.