Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 17, 2026
09:12
The Resident-intruder Paradigm: A Standardized Test for Aggression, Violence and Social Stress
Published on: July 4, 2013
Bite by a dog under provocation: is it free from risk?
1DTM & H, Balasore.
Journal of the Indian Medical Association
|November 7, 2002
Summary
Provoked dog bites can transmit rabies, challenging the common belief that only unprovoked attacks pose a risk. This case highlights the danger of rabies even after a provoked dog bite, emphasizing the need for vigilance.
Area of Science:
- Veterinary Medicine
- Infectious Diseases
- Neurology
Background:
- Rabies is a fatal viral zoonotic disease primarily transmitted through bites from infected animals, most commonly dogs.
- A prevalent misconception suggests that dog bites occurring under provocation do not carry the risk of rabies transmission.
Observation:
- A 38-year-old man sustained a dog bite while provoking the animal.
- The individual subsequently developed clinical signs consistent with rabies approximately four months post-exposure.
Findings:
- The autopsy confirmed the presence of Negri bodies in the brain tissue, a definitive diagnostic marker for rabies.
- This case demonstrates that rabies can develop following a provoked dog bite, contrary to common assumptions.
Implications:
- The findings underscore the critical need for prompt post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for all dog bites, regardless of the provocation context.
- Public health education should address this misconception to prevent underestimation of rabies risk and ensure timely medical intervention.
Related Concept Videos
01:08Obedience
According to obedience research, we may harm others under the forceful pressures of an authority figure (Milgram, 1974). How about if the inappropriate orders were delivered with less force? The increasing interdependence between nurses and physicians compelled Hofling and his colleagues to explore nurses’ reactions to a potentially harmful medical request made by the perceived authority figure, the doctor (Hofling, Brotzman, Dalrymple, Graves, & Pierce, 1966). In this situation, obedience...
01:18Classical Conditioning
Associative learning, a core principle in behavioral psychology, involves forming connections between events and facilitating learned responses. This concept is vividly illustrated by classical conditioning, a process extensively studied by the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov's pioneering research on dogs' digestive systems led to the discovery that behaviors can be learned through association, laying the groundwork for classical conditioning.
Ivan Pavlov observed that dogs salivated...
Ivan Pavlov observed that dogs salivated...
01:23Principles of Classical Conditioning
Classical conditioning, as described by Ivan Pavlov, is a foundational concept in associative learning, where a neutral stimulus becomes capable of eliciting a conditioned response through association with an unconditioned stimulus. The process of acquisition, where this learning occurs, and the subsequent phenomena of contiguity, contingency, generalization, discrimination, extinction, and spontaneous recovery are crucial for a comprehensive understanding of classical conditioning.
During the...
During the...
01:09Preparedness and Phobias
Human fear responses to certain stimuli, such as darkness, heights, deep water, and blood, can often arise despite the absence of direct negative experiences. This phenomenon is rooted in evolutionary psychology, which posits that humans have developed a predisposition to fear stimuli that historically posed significant survival threats. This predisposition, known as preparedness, suggests that early humans who developed a fear of potentially dangerous entities, such as venomous snakes and...
01:05Instinctive Drift
Instinctive drift refers to the tendency of animals to revert to their innate behaviors despite repeated reinforcement. Breland and Breland demonstrated this concept in an experiment with a raccoon. The raccoon was trained to pick up two coins and place them in a container in exchange for food. Initially, the raccoon learned to associate the coins with food, making them a conditioned stimulus or a substitute for food. However, over time, the raccoon became less willing to put the coins into the...
01:28Rabies
Rabies is a lethal zoonotic disease caused by a single-stranded, negative-sense RNA virus of the Lyssavirus genus, within the family Rhabdoviridae. Its primary mode of transmission to humans is through bites or saliva-contaminated scratches from infected mammals such as dogs, bats, raccoons, or foxes. Transmission can also occur if infectious saliva contacts abraded skin or intact mucous membranes, including the conjunctiva.Viral Entry and Early ReplicationOnce introduced at the bite or scratch...