‘World Rabies Day’ is observed worldwide to mark the death anniversary of Louis Pasteur, a
French biologist, microbiologist and chemist who developed the first rabies vaccine. It’s a day where
Anti Rabies actions are collated, intensified and showcased.
Rabies is a neglected zoonotic disease responsible for an estimated 59,000 human deaths annually. Rural populations in Africa and Asia are predominantly affected, and approximately
40% of cases occur in children under the age of 15 years. Transmitted through bites and scratches from infected animal...s, dogs are responsible for up to 99% of human rabies cases.
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Driving progress towards rabies elimination: Results of Gavi’s Learning Agenda on rabies and new WHO position on rabies immunization
2018 has been one of the most successful years ever for Mission Rabies. We are on
the cusp of having almost vaccinated one million dogs in global rabies hotspots,
we’ve educated over two million children and we’re seeing a dramatic reduction in
both human and canine rabies in all our flagship... project sites!! The app is now
developing in conjunction with CDC in the US, our work is being published at an
unprecedented rate and we’re still only four years old!
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Rabies is an infectious viral disease that is almost always fatal once clinical symptoms appear.
In most cases, the disease is transmitted to humans by the bite of a rabid dog, but infection can also spread through scratches or via saliva.
Rabies kills one person every 9 minutes and children aged ...5–14 years are frequent victims.
Yet rabies is 100% vaccine preventable. Vaccinating dogs is the most cost-effective way to prevent rabies in people.
Education about dog behaviour, immediate care measures after a bite, responsible dog ownership and bite prevention are essential components of rabies elimination.
WHO and partners aim to achieve zero human rabies deaths by 2030.
The time to act is now.
More information: http://www.who.int/rabies/en/
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In March 2018, a family and their sick puppy travelled through heavy rains in Malawi to a rabies vaccination drive. The puppy had bitten the family’s 12-year-old son, Isaiah Mzonda several days before and tested positive for rabies during the vaccination drive. Without appropriate prevention and t...reatment, rabies is fatal. Therefore, the rabies bite was a potential death sentence for the family’s young son who had not received any post-exposure treatment.
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Rabies has an enormous impact on both agriculture and conservation biology, but its greatest burden is undeniably on public health. As such, routine methods for rapid risk assessment after human exposures to rabies as well as applications for laboratory-based surveillance, production of biologicals ...and management of this infectious disease are critical. Given its mandate to improve human health and control disease among its Member States, WHO has led the production of this fifth edition of Laboratory techniques in rabies.
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Rabies is a viral infection of wild and domestic mammals, transmitted to humans by the saliva of infected animals through bites, scratches or licks on broken skin or mucous membranes.
In endemic areas (Africa and Asia), 99% of cases are due to dog bites and 40% of cases are children under 15 years... of age.
Before symptoms develop, rabies can effectively be prevented by post-exposure prophylaxis.
Once symptoms develop, rabies is fatal. There is no curative treatment; care is palliative.
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The new WHO recommendations for rabies immunization supersede the 2010 WHO position
on pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for rabies. These updated
recommendations are based on new evidence and directed by public health needs that are cost-,
dose- and time-sparing..., while assuring safety and clinical effectiveness. In addition, new guidance on
prudent use of rabies immunoglobulins (RIG) is provided.
The following sections summarize the main points of the updated WHO position as endorsed by the
Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on immunization (SAGE) at its meeting in October 20171. The full
version of the WHO position on rabies vaccines and immunoglobulins will be published in the Weekly
Epidemiological Record2 in April 2018.
Rabies prevention involves two main strategies: (i) dog vaccination to interrupt virus transmission to
humans; and (ii) human vaccination as a series of vaccine administrations before or after an exposure.
Currently, rabies vaccines made from inactivated cell cultures are extremely well tolerated and have no
contraindications.
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Video
Further OIE Support for African Countries on Rabies vaccines
Rabies is 100% fatal but also 100% preventable with prompt and complete post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP). All animal bites, scratches and licks must be assessed for potential rabies virus exposure.
Rabies is a fatal viral zoonosis and serious public health problem.1 All mammals are believed to be susceptible to the disease, and for the purposes of this document, use of the term animal refers to mammals. The disease is an acute, progressive encephalitis caused by viruses in the genus Lyssavirus....
2 Rabies virus is the most important lyssavirus globally. In the
United States, multiple rabies virus variants are maintained in wild mammalian reservoir populations such as raccoons, skunks, foxes, and bats. Although the United States has been declared free from transmission of canine rabies virus variants, there is always a risk of reintroduction of these variants.The rabies virus is usually transmitted from animal to animal through bites. The incubation period is
highly variable. In domestic animals, it is generally 3 to 12 weeks, but can range from several days to months, exceeding 6 months.8 Rabies is communicable during the period of salivary shedding of rabies virus. Experimental and historic evidence documents that dogs, cats, and ferrets shed the virus for a few days prior to the onset of clinical signs and during illness. Clinical signs of rabies are variable and include inappetance, dysphagia, cranial nerve deficits, abnormal behavior, ataxia, paralysis, altered vocalization, and seizures. Progression to death is rapid. There are currently no known effective rabies antiviral drugs.
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Rabies remains an under-reported neglected zoonosis with a case-fatality rate of almost 100% in humans and animals. Dog-mediated human rabies causes tens of thousands of human deaths annually despite being 100% preventable. More than 95% of human cases are caused by the bite of a rabies-infected dog.... Dog-mediated human rabies disproportionately affects rural communities, particularly children, and economically disadvantaged areas of Africa and Asia, where awareness of the disease and access to appropriate post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) can be limited or nonexistent.
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Rabies remains an under-reported neglected zoonosis with a case-fatality rate of almost 100% in humans and animals. Dog-mediated human rabies causes tens of thousands of human deaths annually despite being 100% preventable. More than 95% of human cases are caused by the bite of a rabies-infected dog.... Dog-mediated human rabies disproportionately affects rural communities, particularly children, and economically disadvantaged areas of Africa and Asia, where awareness of the disease and access to appropriate post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) can be limited or nonexistent.
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A regimen of four 1-mL doses of HDCV or PCEC vaccines should be administered intramuscularly to previously unvaccinated persons.
The first dose of the four-dose course should be administered as soon as possible after exposure. Additional doses should be administered on days 3, 7, and 14 after the... first vaccination. For adults, the vaccination should always be administered intramuscularly in the deltoid area (arm). For children, the anterolateral aspect of the thigh is also acceptable. The gluteal area should never be used for rabies vaccine injections because observations suggest administration in this area results in lower neutralizing antibody titers.
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WHO strongly recommends discontinuation of the nerve tissue vaccine, and replacement with modern concentrated and purified cell culture derived vaccines (CCDV) and embryonated eggbased rabies vaccines.
These vaccines must comply with WHO criteria for potency and innocuity following satisfactory ass...essment in humans during well-designed field trials
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Rabies is a disease of animals but too often the outcome is gauged in terms of human suffering and
death. Despite this, in areas of the world where rabies is endemic there is often a lack of communication between veterinary and medical professionals, to the extent that the disease continues to thri...ve and potential victims are not treated. The problem is partly
exacerbated by a lack of awareness and experience of the disease and of what to do when confronted by suspect cases. In these technologically advanced days, although it is possible to learn “all there is to know” about almost any subject, it is sometimes difficult to distil the essence.
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Report of the WHO/Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Consultation. The Consultation was organized back-to-back with the first annual meeting of the International Coordinating Group of the BMGF-funded project for human and dog rabies elimination in developing countries, held at WHO headquarters, Geneva,... Switzerland, from 5 to 7 October 2009. This allowed the Consultation to benefit from the participation of the national coordinators and advisers of the BMGF-funded projects in the Philippines, South Africa (KwaZulu-Natal) and the United Republic of Tanzania
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