我的狂犬病教育和随之而来的巨额账单

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.

我刚刚在弗吉尼亚州福尔斯彻奇的社区抚摸一只橙色虎斑猫，这是一只我从未见过的猫。他很可爱。他咕噜咕噜叫着，用头撞我的手。

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，对我发出嘶嘶声，然后跑掉了。于是，我开始了自己在《法律与秩序:猫科动物受害者单元》中的一集，配上猫科动物的照片和当地动物控制部门和公共卫生官员每周的登记。和狂犬病疫苗。在急诊室打了几针狂犬病疫苗。还有超过26，000美元的医疗费用，这是一个令人震惊的数字。

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.

我学到的，除了狂犬病的事实，它的传播和人们可能死于狂犬病的可怕方式之外，就是如果我们没有足够的幸运获得良好的健康保险，我们中的任何一个人都只是从经济危机中挣扎出来的一只猫。

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.

我们混乱的医疗体系很容易让一个应该接受医疗的人推迟或避免接受医疗——即使这个决定可能是致命的。

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.

在遇到这只猫之后，我去了附近一家店面的紧急护理诊所，护士递给我一张表格，让我填写,市政府用它来追踪动物咬伤的情况。她把表格传真给了卫生部，我一回家，一名警官就来看我了。

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.

我被问到:“你认识这只猫吗?”在我的社区Facebook群里做了一些调查之后，我开始怀疑他是谁。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.

这就是为什么在被咬了三天后，我在急救室的候诊室里。当动物咬人时，程序是将其隔离10天。如果动物在这段时间内没有出现狂犬病症状，那么可以肯定的说被咬的动物也不会出现狂犬病。

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.

但如果无法识别或捕捉到这种动物，建议开始对狂犬病进行暴露后的预防性治疗。我需要一次性注射人类狂犬病免疫球蛋白，然后在两周内注射四针狂犬病疫苗。

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.

据美国疾病控制与预防中心(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)估计，每年约有4万至5万人在接触了可能患有狂犬病的动物后接受了这种治疗。

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.

我确实考虑过碰碰运气，不接受治疗。我猜咬我的那只猫发疯的几率几乎为零。他可能是某个人的宠物，没有任何症状。但是狂犬病是致命的。这是我的医生、动物管理官员、我的朋友和公共卫生官员一直在重复的一句话。小机会不等于没有机会。

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，我把这段经历抛之脑后，对医疗账单是如何计算的知之甚少，对户外猫产生了新的恐惧——但我也对公共卫生工作者产生了新的感激之情。

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

至于那只猫，警察告诉我它被软禁了。