That kind of disease has an incubation period. It could be as short as a few months or as long as a couple of years before the person started exhibiting symptoms. Post-exposure preventive medicine could be taken aurally during the incubation period. However, the disease would be incurable once the person started showing symptoms.
That widow was quick to show symptoms. The doctor did a checkup for her and found out that she was just infected in the last few months. The doctor asked the widow, an