How come you never hear about rabies these days?

[Taytoface]

I remember travelling to France as a kid, and having the car sprayed on the way back, and posters everywhere about rabies. Anyone remember the film the Mad Death? Fucking terrifying.

I don't even think the bat shit Brexiteers ramped up rabies fear as part of the leave campaign.

Is it just not that common in Europe any more?

I was reading about this last week!

Rabies is largely eliminated from Western, Central, and Northern Europe, including the UK, though terrestrial wildlife cases persist in parts of Eastern Europe and bat lyssaviruses occur continent-wide. Cases are extremely rare.

Why should you? It's so rare in 2026.

It is almost totally eradicated in western Europe. The vaccination rules and precautions have worked.

I think a young boy died in Canada recently after a bat landed on him. He wasn't even bitten or scratched. The virus still got in though. Very sad.

Because last time anyone was talking about it, the emphasis was on the need to be vigilant and prevent it getting to the UK.

I had no idea there’d been an improvement across Europe.
I have strong memories of my mother getting the 6 week course of unpleasant injections after she was bitten on holiday.

It was a high profile issue, with posters of slavering dogs etc.

After that incident Canadian doctors highlighted that bat bites or scratches can be microscopic and easily missed and urge anyone with direct physical contact with a bat to seek immediate medical attention and post-exposure prophylaxis which is nearly 100% effective before symptoms start.

It doesn't seem to be an issue in UK in 2026 so no you can't expect to hear a lot about it.

I've talked about this with my DH (he grew up in the States). The terrifying posters all over the ferries warning you not to smuggle animals in. This was in the late 70s/early 80s. And I remember The Mad Death (although I thought it was a TV series)

But, yeah, it's pretty much eliminated form mainland Europe now. However, there was this pretty horrific story recently: woman got scratched by a stray dog in Morocco. Died 4 months later!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98wyllp170o

I was just about to post that link!

It's still a thing but most of Europe is very low risk and vaccination and post exposure treatment are pretty effective.

However, the time window to seek treatment is very small, especially in the unvaccinated. Which is what happened with this poor lady, who was unaware she was even exposed as she was not bitten or scratched by the dog they suspect was the culprit.

As a result of this case, I have just completed vaccination and recommended it as part of my employer's travel health protection programme.

Did a UK woman not die of it after being scratched/bitten somewhere last year?

I was always v scared of it as a child and wouldn’t touch stray kittens on holiday in France/Spain etc

I would be really interested to know where in Morocco the poor woman was bitten. I have found it strange that none of the news articles have ever mentioned this bit of information?

I remember reading Cujo by Stephen King and it really hammered home how bad it was.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98wyllp170o

Why is where in maroccoi mportant?

Ds1 travels and I was worried about rabies as he's animal mad and will pet strays. He went to India a couple of times and I warned him about the risk. He sends me photos of himself with cats and monkeys. Can people get a vaccination prior to travelling or just following suspected exposure?

I was so horrified by all those rabies public information films in the 70s that I regularly have dreams that I am on holiday in Europe with my dog and it has just hit me that I have brought him out of the country illegally and will have to smuggle him back through customs.

I think rabies was just more common in europe then than now, and there were a couple of scare incidents. And of course without legal means of travelling with your pet, smuggling was much more likely. Checks were probably less effective, too, so they relied on scaring the bejesus out of us.

When I do travel health consultations I always discuss rabies risk.

Especially as rabies vaccine is in worldwide shortage.

@smallglassbottle there is pre exposure vaccine but shortages are being reported. You need 3 vaccines across 28 days.

And you need to keep it up to date. It can be quite expensive too.

Protection generally lasts for at 1 year after which the amount of antibodies in the blood may begin to decline. A booster dose can be given after 1 year. After that, the vaccine typically lasts for up to 5 years before the next booster may be necessary.

Think there was more in the news about it very recently, about a year ago-the woman who got it from Morocco, than at any other time I've heard about it.
It was like TB-something that wasn't considered an issue in the UK until recently.

I was talking about this with DH recently as we were travelling. It was such a big thing in the 80s. It made me very worried as a child that there would be an outbreak in the UK. I don't expect to hear about it if it's not a risk any more but don't remember when it slipped out of such public consciousness.

I remember there being talk/scaremongering when the channel tunnel was built that it might provide a way for animals to come from France to the UK and spread rabies. I was quite scared

I got bitten by a stray cat in Dubai a couple of years ago and had to have rabies jabs ! One jab in Dubai & then two more in the UK when I got home.

Thanks. Do you happen to know how long the vaccination lasts?

My DM (86) used to go regularly to the Gambia until 3 years ago to work on her Christian charity project. I remember her telling me in an email that she had befriended a stray kitten. I warned her about rabies, which she hadn’t thought about.

Thankfully she hadn’t been bitten or scratched, and was grateful for the reminder.

@smallglassbottle as @ShetlandishMum says protection should last at least 1 year, possibly longer but booster doses can be advised where needed dependent on risk.

A course of vaccine isn’t cheap either.

Never saw The Mad Death but there was an absolutely terrifying 1980s film in the Murder! Mystery! and Suspense! series. Where a man caught it from his dog and chained himself up as the disease (rather graphically) progressed.

Shitted me up for years that did and put me right off dogs. I still steer the kids away from stray animals on holiday and people look at me like I’m mad when they hear me mentioning rabies.

I think you do still hear mention of rabies, people do talk about it but perhaps it's a little more hush hush now as there is definitely a taboo attached to it. The foaming of the mouth puts it into the category of 'best to not speak of that' as it's not seen as one of sexier diseases/conditions (sorry I couldn't think of a better way to phrase that but you get the jist)