To get rabies post exposure vaccine?

[Hp737]

Posting for traffic as I’m having an anxious episode over this and unsure what to do. I came back from a holiday in the Maldives yesterday and on the second day of my holiday (so this would’ve been last Thursday) I was cycling at night and got pooed on by what I think was a bat (large “flying foxes” very common there). I washed myself completely in the shower about 5 mins later and actually threw away the clothes which the poo was on. I visited the hotel medical center the next day and the doctor said there is no rabies in the Maldives, plus everything I have read online including CDC and NHS advice is that you can’t contract rabies from poo/urine, it’s generally saliva via a bite which is high risk.
However I am now home and still really anxious about whether I should try and get a rabies post exposure vaccination. I don’t know if it would be effective this late on anyway, or if getting a course of vaccination would just be incredibly stupid for something that by all accounts was low to no risk. I’m a pretty anxious person though and have suffered with health anxiety through my life so I don’t know how crazy it would actually be to get the vaccine if I can find it.
Please can anyone talk sense to me on this?

Also, the poo was on my legs, not in my eyes, mouth etc.

You know you're being unreasonable, you don't need me to tell you that.

There's no rabies there, and you can't contract that way. You don't need the vaccination. You've checked all the official medical advice that tells you that.

Are you getting help for your anxiety?

You were in an area without rabies and you didn't get bitten. Of course you don't need a vaccine.

You could speak to a pharmacist, they will put your mind at rest.

I used to live in a country with rabies, so I know enough about it, plus travel a lot to Asian and African countries and research what to do if bitten etc etc.

There is no possibility that you could have rabies from that incident. Absolutely impossible.

There’s no rabies in the Maldives. That means that they have had no recorded cases, and they will be restrictive of animals coming in, so there’s no chance of recontamination of the area. There’s no rabies there. They’d know if there was!

Of course you're being unreasonable. Even if there was rabies in the Maldives, which there's not, you wouldn't need a rabies jab because something shat on your leg when you were wearing clothes.

Rabies is not carried in faeces.

You don't have rabies. You can relax. Just get the jabs IF you travel to an area with rabies in future.

Also it needs to be done within 24 or 48 hours of infection anyway

Batshit

You can't just pitch up and ask Rabies immunoglobulin, PHE have set protocols to follow.
If you're worried could you ring your practice nurse, she could reassure you.

Have a look at this - there is a collection of pdfs:

www.gov.uk/government/collections/rabies-risk-assessment-post-exposure-treatment-management

I suggest you read The guidelines on managing rabies post exposure.

(A cat bit right through DS' nail in Poland, a high risk country. He looked all of this up!)

Pizzaformytea

Batshit

Simply brilliant

You're letting your anxiety get the better of you.

You were not in an area where you could have caught rabies. You were not bitten. You got medical advice while you were there.

Really you have nothing to worry about.

To put it in perspective, it's like worrying you've caught HIV from a handshake. From someone who doesn't have it.

Have you got other stuff on your mind? I find personally that I tend to catastrophise like you are when there is something else causing me stress.

If you are willing to spend c £150 for a vaccine you dont need, more fool you. All that will happen is that you move onto worrying about some other imaginary symptom.

Better to invest the money in some CBT.