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Suggest Treatment To Be Taken For Scratch From Monkey

Posted on Wed, 18 Mar 2015

Question: I had few scratches from a monkey today while travelling in the morning and couple of those spots bled(little). I washed those spots then for a minute with clear water and after 3-4 hours when I was able to find one medical store, cleared those areas with cotton and raw Savlon. I had a tetanus injection on 31st January. And today is march 1st, not ideally 30 days are yet over. Please let me know if I do need any medical attention.

Answered by Dr. Deepak Kishore Kaltari (39 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Anti rabies prophylaxis needed

Detailed Answer:
Hi
Welcome to Healthcaremagic
Greetings of the day
Dear Mr XXXXXX

Apart from anti Tetanus prophylaxis, anti rabies prophylaxis is also indicated. Anti rabies prophylaxis is ideally given soon after exposure to either bite or scratch from animals. Even though it's nearly 30 days following exposure , I would still recommend going ahead with anti rabies prophylaxis even though the risk of having rabies is low and also efficacy of vaccination is low( ideally should be given soon after exposure ).

I would suggest you to consult your physician for vaccination.

Do get back to me if you need any further assistance, will be glad to assist you.

Take care

Best regards
Dr Deepak Kaltari
Consultant Surgeon

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Deepak Kishore Kaltari (2 hours later)

Hi,

Thanks for the answer. This is a followup question. How soon I need to have the vaccination as I am on transit now. What is the time limit to have the vaccination( both anti tetanus and anti rabies) completed? Will it be late if I have the vaccine after 36-40 hours as I wont be able to reach before that.

Answered by Dr. Deepak Kishore Kaltari (5 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
You can definitely wait for 36-40 hours

Detailed Answer:
Dear Mr XXXXXXX,

Ideally rabies vaccine should be given soon after exposure. Now as it has been already 30 days, you can definitely wait for 36-40 hours before rabies vaccination. Even though the incubation period of rabies in animals is short, in humans the incubation period( time interval between exposure and development of disease) is variable and much longer so Rabies vaccination is still indicated .
Tetanus immunization is also ideally given soon after exposure.

Take Care

Regards
Deepak

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar