World Rabies Day: Spreading Awareness About the Dangers of the Fatal Disease

By Eugene DSouza, Moodubelle
Bellevision Media Network

28 September 2011: Though dogs are adorable, trustworthy and ‘best friends’ of humans, they can unwittingly cause serious harm to people if dogs with rabies virus (locally known as ‘mad dogs’) bite unsuspecting people. Such dog bites may prove fatal unless the victims are treated with the prescribed doses of anti-rabies injections at regular intervals. 

 

According to an estimate over 99% of all human deaths that are caused by infected dogs usually occur in Africa and Asia, especially in regions with large numbers of unvaccinated community and domestic dogs and stray dogs. It is said that with the exception of Antarctica, people and animals on every continent are at risk of contracting rabies. 

 

The word ‘Rabies’ is derived from Latin which means ‘madness’. It is a viral disease that causes inflammation of the brain (encephalitis) in warm-blooded animals. It is transmitted by animals, especially by a bite from an infected animal most commonly infected dog. For humans, rabies is certainly fatal if post-exposure prophylaxis (anti-rabies) vaccination is not administered prior to the onset of severe symptoms. The rabies virus infects the central nervous system eventually causing disease in the brain and death.

 

Following the peripheral nerves, the rabies virus travels to the brain following an incubation period. Once the rabies reaches the central nervous system and symptoms begin to show, the infection cannot be treated effectively and usually the infected person faces certain death within days.

 

When a person is bitten by an infected dog, he or she experience headache and fever, gradually feeling acute pain, violent movements, uncontrolled excitement, depression and hydrophobia (fear of water). Finally, the patient may experience periods of mania and lethargy, eventually leading to coma. Usually such patients face death due to breathing problems.

Virtually every infection with rabies resulted in death, until the two French scientists Louis Pasteur and Emile Roux developed the first rabies vaccination in 1885. This vaccine was first used on a human on July 6, 1885, on nine-year old Joseph Meister (1876–1940), who had been mauled by a rabid dog. 

 

Their vaccine consisted of a sample of the virus harvested from infected and dead rabbits, which was weakened by allowing it to dry for 5 to 10 days. Similar nerve tissue-derived vaccines are still used now in some countries, and while they are much cheaper than modern cell culture vaccines, they are not as effective.  In modern times due to extensive research, a series of more effective anti-rabies vaccines are being  produced.

 

Realising the seriousness of the rabies menace, World Rabies Day is being observed on September 28 each year since 2007, the anniversary of the death of Louis Pasteur. It is an international campaign coordinated by the Global Alliance For Rabies Control, a non-profit organization with headquarters in the United States and the United Kingdom. It is a United Nations Observance and has been endorsed by international human and veterinary health organizations such as the World Health Organization, the Pan American Health Organization, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the US Centers for  Disease Control and Prevention, and the World Veterinary Association. 

The World  Rabies Day aims to raise awareness about the impact of rabies on humans and animals, provide information and advice on how to prevent the disease, and how individuals and organizations can help eliminate the main global sources. 

 

The World Rabies Day campaign is organized through a system of global partnerships from government to local level, and a worldwide community of volunteers. Over 50 organizations take part  in the campaign, supporting and promoting the outreach of educational messages about rabies in person, in print and online. The campaign aims to bring together all relevant partners in an effort to address rabies prevention and control. Health workers, scientists and personnel in communities at risk of rabies are encouraged to access an education bank of materials through the organization’s website for use in local educational initiatives.

 

As rabies is a disease that crosses borders, especially in wild animal populations, the campaign encourages the transnational collaboration of rabies control and prevention organizations. It also promotes a One Health approach to rabies prevention, part of a worldwide strategy for expanding interdisciplinary collaborations and communications in all aspects of health care for humans and animal health.

 

The advocacy work of the World Rabies Day campaign includes promoting government involvement in rabies prevention and control programmes, increasing the vaccination coverage of pets and community dogs, and improving the educational awareness of how to prevent rabies in all levels of society. It also promotes the utilization of an integrated model of disease management, the Blueprint for Rabies Prevention. The Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN (FAO) considers that World Rabies Day plays an important role in advocating the prevention and control of rabies among policy makers, especially in countries where rabies is still neglected.

(From Sources)