La Rabia

This past weekend a stray dog bit me. I was walking down the street, minding my own business, when el callejero crossed the street, followed me a few steps, then bit my thigh. The dog unclamped its jaws, barked a couple times, then trotted back across the street.

I was perplexed, to say the least. I'd never heard of callejeros biting anyone. They sometimes follow people to beg for food, but this behavior was definitely odd - especially considering that it was completely unprovoked. The circumstances were sketchy enough that I couldn't rule rabies out, despite the fact that the bite didn't break my skin. There have been cases, though few, of people contracting rabies just from infected saliva.

I talked to Middlebury program employees, then the program director, then with my parents, who talked with a doctor back home... And said I should get vaccinated. So last night after returning from my internship I sheepishly approached my host mom and said that I had been bitten by a dog... and would she please drive me to the clinic?

The clinic was packed. We waited a long time just to "sign in" and talk to a secretary, who then told us that it would be hours before I could be seen. Instead of waiting through all that, early this morning I went to the university health center to see if they could give me the vaccinations. Also, the there doctor reiterated (as have most people here, including my host mother, the secretary at the clinic, and the secretary at the ULS health center) that it was probably not necessary to get the vaccination because the bite hadn't broken my skin, but conceded it might be best to do the treatment just in case.

The ULS departamento de salud estudiantil (student health center) couldn't administer the shots, but gave me the prescription/doctor's order necessary and directed me to the hospital. In the emergency room I had to wait an hour and a half to get treated there, but eventually did get the first dose.

My hospital room:

Attention!!! Don't throw up in the sink - use the trash can.

Though it's very unlikely that I did get rabies from the dog, my theory was better safe than sorry.
Or, Más vale prevenir que curar.
(which literally translates to: better to prevent than need to cure. The best English equivalent is "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.")

The spanish dicho (saying) is an interesting analogy. It doesn't quite suggest the same thing as "better safe than sorry" because it implies that you CAN get cured even if you don't take preventative measures. Whereas with rabies, if you decide to confirm you have rabies by waiting until symptoms appear... well, you're out of luck. If symptoms appear, it's fatal and there's nothing you can do about it. So preventative is really the only way to go. Más vale prevenir que morir!

Más dichos:
In Spanish there's a saying: "El perro que ladra no muerda," the English equivalent being: "A barking dog seldom bites." I thought that made this situation kind of funny, since the dog both bit and barked. (I suppose in English the expression says 'seldom' instead of 'never' for a reason...)

Anyway, this Saturday I'll be going for my next dosage, and then again a week from now, two weeks from now, and four weeks from now.