LAST UPDATED: 4/3/26 – Why You Should Consider Rabies Vaccination for Travel

IMPORTANT NOTE: I am not a medical professional and have no medical training. I’m sharing my thoughts on rabies vaccination for travel based on my own research into the virus, its risks, and the experiences of other travelers who have faced exposure. My goal is simply to raise awareness so you can make an informed decision. Please discuss your personal risk and protection options with your doctor before you travel.

The COVID‑19 pandemic brought travel health into sharp focus, but many long‑standing global health crises still affect millions—especially in the world’s poorest regions. Diseases like HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, yellow fever, dengue, typhoid, and Zika continue to cause far more deaths in parts of Africa and Asia than anywhere else. No matter where we live, we all share a responsibility to help reduce suffering from these preventable illnesses.

It’s also essential to protect ourselves when we travel. Many of us were vaccinated in childhood against illnesses like polio, MMR, DTP, and hepatitis A and B, but far fewer have received vaccines for diseases not common in North America or Europe, such as typhoid, yellow fever, or Japanese encephalitis. Knowing which vaccines you need—and arranging them before your trip—helps keep you, your travel companions, and the people you meet safe.

Though it may not kill as many people each year as Influenza, Malaria, or other illnesses, one of the oldest and most lethal of all diseases known to man is the rabies virus. Of all the known viruses in this world, the Rabies virus is by far the most lethal.

Rabies Vaccination For Travelers Navigation Menu

Rabies Infection is Almost Always Fatal

With an almost 100% fatality rate, a human rabies diagnosis is essentially always fatal, leading to an agonizing and irreversible decline once symptoms appear. Although deaths have dropped in North America and Europe thanks to widespread pet and wildlife vaccination, the virus still kills more than 50,000 people each year—mostly in parts of Asia and Africa where unvaccinated domestic dogs are the primary source of infection.

In this article, I explain what rabies is, how it spreads to humans, where the highest‑risk regions are, and why understanding prevention is so important. I also share why I chose to get the rabies pre‑exposure vaccine and why travelers heading to high‑risk areas may want to consider it as well. Vaccination discussions can be emotional, but having clear facts about this lethal virus helps you make informed decisions about your health as you explore the world.

About the Rabies Virus

According to a history of Rabies, the earliest known reference to the disease dates to around 2,300 B.C. in the Babylonian city of Eshnunna, where owners were fined if their dogs’ bites caused a rabies death. This makes rabies one of the oldest documented human diseases. Until French chemist Louis Pasteur and his assistant Emile Roux developed the first effective vaccine in the 1880s, a human infection was almost always fatal.

Per the Centers for Disease Control, rabies is a zoonotic disease, meaning it primarily affects animals but can be transmitted to humans. It is also neurotropic, infecting the host’s nervous system.

After exposure, the virus replicates in muscle and connective tissue at the wound site before entering peripheral nerves. Once inside the nervous system, it travels to the spinal cord and then the brain, where it multiplies rapidly, causing encephalitis (brain swelling) and ultimately death.

It’s Critical to Get Treatment Before Rabies Reaches the Nervous System

A key feature of rabies is its typically long incubation period, during which the virus remains in local tissue before reaching the nerves. According to the World Health Organization’s Rabies Fact Sheet, this delay provides a critical window in which post‑exposure prophylaxis (PEP) can prevent the virus from reaching the nervous system and becoming fatal.

When the correct PEP protocol is followed promptly, preventing rabies infection is highly effective. This is why understanding how to avoid exposure—and knowing the proper steps for rabies vaccination related to travel—is so important.

Ways You Can Get Infected With Rabies

The virus can spread to humans through a bite or scratch from an infected animal, an infected animal licking an open wound, or saliva contacting mucous membranes such as the eyes or mouth. What many people don’t realize is that even a minor bite or scratch can transmit rabies. In addition, rabid animals don’t always appear aggressive or foam at the mouth—an animal may seem calm or normal and still carry the virus.

Important Rabies Exposure Facts

• Any mammal can carry the rabies virus. This includes domestic animals (dogs, cats, ferrets, rabbits), farm animals (horses, cows, goats), and wild mammals (bats, foxes, raccoons, skunks, wolves, coyotes, and others). Birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish cannot get or transmit rabies.
• In Asia and Africa, unvaccinated domestic dogs are the primary source of human rabies infections. Dog‑mediated rabies accounts for the vast majority of global human deaths.
• In North America, Europe, and Australia, wild bats are the most common source of human rabies exposure. Other wildlife—such as foxes, raccoons, and skunks—also play a role depending on the region.
• You do not need a severe bite to contract rabies. Any bite or scratch that breaks the skin can transmit the virus. Rabies can also spread if an infected animal’s saliva enters an open wound or contacts mucous membranes such as the eyes or mouth.
• Rabid animals do not always behave aggressively. Infected animals may appear unusually tame, timid, confused, or simply “not themselves.” A wild animal showing no fear of humans—or behaving abnormally, such as a bat active during the day—should be avoided.
• Bat exposures can occur without a noticeable bite. Bat teeth are extremely small, and people may not feel or see a bite. Waking up in a room with a bat, or finding a bat near an unattended child or intoxicated person, is considered a potential exposure.
• Rabies cannot be transmitted through intact skin or casual contact. Petting an animal, touching fur, or being near an infected animal does not spread the virus unless saliva contacts a wound or mucous membrane.
• Immediate wound washing is critical. Thoroughly washing a bite or scratch with soap and water for at least 15 minutes significantly reduces the risk of infection and is considered the first step of post‑exposure care.

Recent Stories of Rabies Travel Deaths

In case you haven’t seen them, there are quite a few nightmare stories about travelers who have died of Rabies after having seemingly minor exposures to animals that they had no clue were infected.

Just a few years ago, a Norwegian woman died of Rabies shortly after receiving a small bite from a puppy that she had handled while traveling in the Philippines.

It’s a similar story to an American woman who also died of Rabies recently after being bitten by a puppy while on a yoga retreat in India. However, it isn’t just dogs that have infected travelers.

While vacationing in Morocco, a UK man received a small bite from a cat during his visit, but didn’t get vaccinated for Rabies until many weeks later, and ultimately died of the disease because of it.

These are just some of the many stories out there about travelers who didn’t understand the exposure risks or the importance of getting the proper Rabies PEP as soon as possible. These stories are also why I think that getting a rabies vaccination for travel will help provide you with peace of mind as you travel.

Why I Am Choosing to Get Vaccinated

In case you don’t follow my blog closely, I am planning on taking a trip to Egypt, Jordan, and Israel this autumn. While reading the Centers for Disease Control vaccination recommendations for Egypt and Jordan, I noticed the following guidance concerning rabies for both of those countries:

Rabid dogs are commonly found in Egypt (and Jordan). If you are bitten or scratched by a dog or other mammal while in Egypt, there may be limited or no rabies treatment available.

Centers for Disease Control Guidance on Travel to Egypt and Jordan

This led me to do some additional research about whether other travelers have decided to get the Rabies vaccination for travel to these and other parts of the world where Rabies exposure is more common.

In case you aren’t aware, there is a Rabies pre-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) regimen that will simplify the post-exposure vaccination process if you are exposed and make it much easier to get treatment if exposed overseas. I outline the pre-exposure Rabies vaccination process and its benefits in the section on How to Protect Yourself below.

Nightmare Rabies Exposure Experiences Told by Travelers

As I started to read about the experiences that other travelers have had with Rabies exposures while traveling overseas, I started to realize just how difficult it can be to find the proper treatment while traveling and just how big of a nightmare it can be to try and get the proper Rabies PEP in time.

Here are just a few of the first-hand experiences I read from other travelers who had Rabies exposure overseas and had a nightmare experience trying to get the proper treatment in time.

• How a Rabies Scare Changed the Way I Want to Travel
• I was bitten by a feral dog while overseas. My search for rabies shots was a terrifying ordeal.
• Rabies scare has woman turning to doctor half a world away

Rabies Risk By Country

If you have upcoming international travel plans or know that you might be traveling internationally in the future, you may want to consider getting the Rabies vaccination for travel. For a better understanding of what type of risk there is to being exposed to Rabies in different parts of the world, I have included a chart from the World Health Organization (WHO) below for you to review and make your own assessment.

Number of Annual Rabies Fatalities per Country

How to Protect Yourself from Rabies

Thankfully, the days when rabies exposure meant certain, horrifying death are long gone. Since the first rabies vaccine was introduced in the 1880s, global human deaths from this virus have dropped dramatically.

With the right knowledge and timely treatment, rabies is now entirely preventable. Even the vaccines themselves have evolved—no more series of painful abdominal injections. Modern rabies shots are given in the deltoid muscle of the arm, making rabies vaccination for travel as straightforward as getting a COVID‑19 shot or many other routine vaccines.

Post-Exposure Vaccination

If you receive an animal bite or other exposure to Rabies while traveling overseas, you will need to make sure you follow the proper protocol for Rabies post‑exposure prophylaxis. According to the Centers for Disease Control, this includes the following (this schedule must be STRICTLY followed):

• Immediately – Wash wounds thoroughly for 15 minutes using soap and water. If available, use a virucidal agent such as iodine or alcohol.
• Day 0 – Rabies Vaccine Shot and Rabies RIG (see below)
• Day 3 – Rabies Vaccine Shot
• Day 7 – Rabies Vaccine Shot
• Day 14 – Rabies Vaccine Shot

However, to be certain that you won’t get Rabies after exposure, the post‑exposure PEP process also includes a shot of Rabies Immunoglobulin (RIG) injected directly into and around the wound (where you were bitten) immediately with your first Rabies vaccination shot. Any remaining RIG that cannot fit into the wound is injected into a muscle away from the vaccine site.

This shot of RIG gives you immediate protection against Rabies until the Rabies vaccine shots allow your body to build up its own natural immunity.

Most of the deaths that have occurred in people who received Rabies vaccinations happened because they did not follow World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control protocols for Rabies vaccinations — including not receiving RIG, not having RIG properly infiltrated into the wound, using outdated vaccines, or not completing the vaccine schedule.

Risks to Relying on Post-Exposure Vaccination While Traveling

Although the HRIG shots have proven effective in protecting people from Rabies immediately after exposure, there are some drawbacks to relying on Rabies post-exposure PEP (including RIG) that make getting Rabies pre-exposure PEP a very prudent option. These include the following:

• In some countries, Human Rabies Immunoglobulin (HRIG) is unavailable, and the only option is Equine Rabies Immunoglobulin (ERIG), which has more frequent and more severe side effects. Rabies Immunoglobulin is a concentrated antibody taken from individuals who have developed immunity to the virus. HRIG is made from the plasma of vaccinated human donors and is injected into bite wounds to provide immediate protection. ERIG, by contrast, is produced from the plasma of horses vaccinated against Rabies, and because it comes from a non‑human source, it carries a higher risk of allergic reactions, including rare but serious hypersensitivity responses.
• In some cases, RIG of either kind can be hard to find overseas, which means you will need to either get medically evacuated from the country to get the proper shots or scramble from hospital to hospital looking for immunoglobulin.** In many low‑resource regions, even ERIG may be scarce, and HRIG is often completely unavailable.
• Even if you do find Human Rabies Immunoglobulin, it can be quite expensive.** There are many reports of people who have received HRIG and then faced medical bills in the tens of thousands of dollars, even after insurance paid its share. For instance, a biologist bitten by a cat in the Everglades received a $48,512 medical bill for her Rabies treatment, while a woman in New Jersey was charged over $24,000 to treat her rabies exposure following a fox bite.

Pre-Exposure Vaccination

If you are interested in getting the Rabies vaccination for travel, you should fully understand the benefits and the process before committing. It is recommended that you don’t start the pre-exposure vaccination process unless you can finish the protocol completely. According to the Centers for Disease Control, there are many advantages to getting the Rabies pre-exposure vaccinations before traveling:

Although pre-exposure vaccination does not eliminate the need for additional therapy after a rabies exposure, it simplifies management by eliminating the need for rabies immune globulin and decreasing the number of doses of vaccine needed. This is of particular importance for persons at high risk for exposure to rabies in areas where immunizing products might not be available or where lesser quality biologics might be used which would place the exposed person at increased risk for adverse events.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis may also protect people whose post-exposure therapy is delayed and provide protection to people who are at risk for unapparent exposures to rabies.

Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

In my opinion, the most important advantage is that Rabies Immunoglobulin is unnecessary if you have had pre‑exposure vaccinations. In fact, according to the CDC and other major health organizations, they recommend not getting the HRIG shot if you have had the pre‑exposure vaccinations, as it can interfere with your body’s ability to create Rabies antibodies on its own.

The reason you don’t need to get the HRIG shot when you have had the pre‑exposure vaccination shots is that your body already has immune memory cells that can create the necessary Rabies antibodies much faster than someone who hasn’t had the Rabies pre‑exposure vaccination shots. That is also why you don’t need to get as many shots after being exposed if you have had the pre‑exposure vaccinations, which is another advantage to getting them.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the protocol for Rabies pre-exposure prophylaxis includes the following:

• Day 0 – Rabies Vaccine Shot
• Day 7 – Rabies Vaccine Shot
• Booster – Between 3 weeks and 3 years following the second shot

NOTE: The CDC recently changed the prescribed pre-exposure regimen from a 3-shot prophylaxis regimen to a 2-shot prophylaxis regimen.

After Exposure, the following additional shots will be needed:

• Immediately – Wash wounds thoroughly for 15 minutes using soap, iodine, or alcohol.
• Day 0 – Rabies Vaccine Shot
• Day 3 – Rabies Vaccine Shot

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