我的狂犬病教育和隨之而來的巨額賬單

我的狂犬病教育和隨之而來的巨額賬單

I was just petting an orange tabby cat in my Falls Church, Virginia, neighborhood, a cat I never met before. He was very cute. And he was purring and butting his head against my hand.

我剛剛在弗吉尼亞州福爾斯徹奇的社區(qū)撫摸一只橙色虎斑貓，這是一只我從未見過的貓。他很可愛。他咕嚕咕嚕叫著，用頭撞我的手。

He sunk his teeth into my wrist, hissed at me and ran off. So began my personal episode of Law & Order: Feline Victims Unit, complete with cat mug shots and weekly check-ins from local animal control and public health officials. And rabies shots. Multiple rabies shots in the emergency room. And more than $26,000 in health care costs, an alarming amount.

他咬住我的手腕，對我發(fā)出嘶嘶聲，然后跑掉了。于是，我開始了自己在《法律與秩序:貓科動物受害者單元》中的一集，配上貓科動物的照片和當(dāng)?shù)貏游锟刂撇块T和公共衛(wèi)生官員每周的登記。和狂犬病疫苗。在急診室打了幾針狂犬病疫苗。還有超過26，000美元的醫(yī)療費用，這是一個令人震驚的數(shù)字。

What I learned, besides facts about rabies, its transmission and the horrible ways one can die from it, was that how any one of us is a mere cat scratch away from financial peril if we aren't lucky enough to have good health insurance.

我學(xué)到的，除了狂犬病的事實，它的傳播和人們可能死于狂犬病的可怕方式之外，就是如果我們沒有足夠的幸運獲得良好的健康保險，我們中的任何一個人都只是從經(jīng)濟危機中掙扎出來的一只貓。

Our confusing health care system makes it too easy for a person who should get medical care to postpone it or avoid it — even when that decision could be fatal.

我們混亂的醫(yī)療體系很容易讓一個應(yīng)該接受醫(yī)療的人推遲或避免接受醫(yī)療——即使這個決定可能是致命的。

After the encounter with the cat, I headed to a nearby storefront urgent care clinic, where a nurse handed me a form to fill out, which the city uses to track animal bites. She faxed the form to the health department and a police officer visited me as soon as I returned home.

在遇到這只貓之后，我去了附近一家店面的緊急護理診所，護士遞給我一張表格，讓我填寫,市政府用它來追蹤動物咬傷的情況。她把表格傳真給了衛(wèi)生部，我一回家，一名警官就來看我了。

I was asked: "Do you know the cat?" After some sleuthing in my neighborhood Facebook group, I developed a suspicion about whom he belongs to. But I couldn't be 100% positive.

我被問到:“你認識這只貓嗎?”在我的社區(qū)Facebook群里做了一些調(diào)查之后，我開始懷疑他是誰。但我不可能100%肯定。

Which is why three days after the bite I was in the waiting room in the emergency room. When an animal bites someone, the procedure is to quarantine it for 10 days. If the animal doesn't develop rabies symptoms during that time, it's safe to say the bite victim won't develop the disease either.

這就是為什么在被咬了三天后，我在急救室的候診室里。當(dāng)動物咬人時，程序是將其隔離10天。如果動物在這段時間內(nèi)沒有出現(xiàn)狂犬病癥狀，那么可以肯定的說被咬的動物也不會出現(xiàn)狂犬病。

But if the animal can't be identified or captured, the recommendation is to begin post-exposure preventive treatment for rabies. I'd need a one-time injection of human rabies immune globulin and then four injections of the rabies vaccine over two weeks.

但如果無法識別或捕捉到這種動物，建議開始對狂犬病進行暴露后的預(yù)防性治療。我需要一次性注射人類狂犬病免疫球蛋白，然后在兩周內(nèi)注射四針狂犬病疫苗。

An estimated 40,000 to 50,000 people get such treatments each year following exposure to potentially rabid animals, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

據(jù)美國疾病控制與預(yù)防中心(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)估計，每年約有4萬至5萬人在接觸了可能患有狂犬病的動物后接受了這種治療。

I did consider taking my chances and skipping treatment. The odds the cat that bit me was rabid were, I'd guess, almost zero. He was probably someone's pet and didn't appear to have any symptoms. But rabies is fatal. That was the line my doctor, the animal control officer, my friends and public health officials kept repeating. A small chance is not the same as no chance.

我確實考慮過碰碰運氣，不接受治療。我猜咬我的那只貓發(fā)瘋的幾率幾乎為零。他可能是某個人的寵物，沒有任何癥狀。但是狂犬病是致命的。這是我的醫(yī)生、動物管理官員、我的朋友和公共衛(wèi)生官員一直在重復(fù)的一句話。小機會不等于沒有機會。

Afterwards, I leave this experience behind , little understanding of how medical bills are calculated and a new fear of outdoor cats — but also with a new appreciation for public health workers.

之后，我把這段經(jīng)歷拋之腦后，對醫(yī)療賬單是如何計算的知之甚少，對戶外貓產(chǎn)生了新的恐懼——但我也對公共衛(wèi)生工作者產(chǎn)生了新的感激之情。

As for the cat, the police told me he's under house arrest.

至于那只貓，警察告訴我它被軟禁了。