What are the dietary taboos after being bitten by a dog?

After being bitten by a dog, especially when you need to be vaccinated against rabies, there are no dietary taboos that need to be strictly enforced. What is spread online is that you cannot eat spicy food, touch seafood, drink milk tea, coffee, or even eat beef and mutton. Most of them are unnecessary excessive restrictions.

Some people may say that’s wrong. The doctor specifically told me to avoid foods when I received the vaccine last time? This is actually a difference caused by the difference between old and new knowledge. In the early years, the domestic rabies vaccine purification process was not good enough, and adverse reactions such as fever, local redness, and fatigue were prone to occur after vaccination. Eating irritating foods may aggravate these discomforts. Therefore, the guidelines at that time mentioned a light diet. Today's vaccines have gone through many rounds of purification, and the incidence of adverse reactions has been reduced to very low levels. Including the latest WHO rabies vaccine position paper, it is also clearly mentioned that diet will not affect the antibody production effect of the vaccine, and there is no need to specialize in food taboos.

Last week, I met a sophomore who came to the dog injury clinic. He was scratched by a stray cat in the school and received a second injection. The day before, he went to eat spicy grilled wings with his classmates. He had diarrhea that night. He was so scared that he didn't sleep well all night. He was afraid that the vaccine was in vain. I read him the canine injury treatment regulations that our department had just updated, and showed him some clinical research data on the impact of diet on antibodies. He was relieved. Later, he was fully vaccinated and tested for antibodies. The titer was more than three times higher than the qualified line.

Of course, this does not mean that you can completely eat and drink. Nowadays, many clinicians still recommend that patients eat a moderate diet. This cannot be said to be wrong. After all, everyone's body is different. If you are allergic, you are prone to hives when eating seafood, or you may have gastrointestinal discomfort when eating spicy food. You can really avoid it during the vaccination period. Otherwise, if you develop uncomfortable symptoms, you will not be able to tell whether it is a food problem or an adverse reaction to the vaccine, which will only add anxiety to yourself.

If there is anything you need to pay attention to, it has nothing to do with the vaccine. It is mainly for wounds. If the bite wound is deep and is still recovering from exudation, don’t drink too much alcohol, and don’t eat spicy food until you are sweating profusely. Sweat soaking in unhealed wounds can easily lead to infection, which is really troublesome. To put it bluntly, the most important thing to pay attention to if you are bitten by a dog is to treat the wound promptly and properly, and get all the vaccinations on time. As for what to eat, as long as you eat nothing wrong with it, eat what you should. Don’t scare yourself into eating porridge and vegetables every day, which will cause you to lose nutrition and feel uncomfortable.