Rabies is an English word meaning contagious viral disease especially of dogs. It is also known as hydrophobia (fear of water). It has been derived from Latin word, “rabere” meaning, “madness” (West.1972; Bisseru , 1972) , from Sanskrit word , “rabbas”, meaning, “to do violence”. The World Veterinary Association (WVA) created World Veterinary Day in the year 2000, as an annual celebration of Veterinary profession and it is celebrated at last Saturday of April month. The WVA , World Organization for Animal Health (Office International des Epizooties - OIE) and Global Alliance for Rabies Control have partnered together to promote this year’s theme as , “Rabies” . 28th September is observed as World Rabies Day.
This disease was present in Egypt before 2300 BC and also in ancient Greece (Murphy et al.1999). Though it was discovered earlier, it has not been able to eradicate as compared to those of Rinderpest and Madcow disease in animals.
Rabies is caused by Lyssa virus (RNA virus) of Rhabdoviridae family. It is a non-mutated virus, unlike Avian flu. It is an endemic disease prevalent in every part of the world, with some exceptions (particularly some islands). Countries like U.K, Ireland, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Japan, some islands in Indonesia have been free of this classical rabies virus for many years.
According to WHO, a country may be considered to be free of rabies if there has been no indigenously acquired cases in humans or animals, during the previous 2 years , in the process of adequate surveillance and import regulations. As compared to any communicable disease, rabies has never been a major cause for human mortality, but it is the most severe. It ranks 12th on the WHO list of major killer disease (Meslin and Stohr. 1997) , is an OIE list B diseases and currently remains an ongoing threat to human and animal population. About 60,000 human victims die of rabies each year while more than 10 million people require post exposure treatment. The possible routes of transmission are,
1). by direct contact i.e. transmitted from the infectious saliva of rabid animal by direct bite.
2). by ingestion- usually occurs in wildlife among predators and prey.
3). Corneal transplantation from human to human (Kaplan et al. 1986.) etc. The incubation period in humans is from 2 weeks to 12 months, in dogs from 3 weeks to 12 months. The rabies virus infects the central nervous system, ultimately causing disease in the brain and death. The early symptoms of rabies in people are similar to that of many other illnesses, including fever, headache, and general weakness. As the disease progresses, symptoms like insomnia, anxiety, confusion, slight or partial paralysis, ,hallucinations, agitation, hypersalivation (increase in saliva), difficulty swallowing, and hydrophobia (fear of water) appear. Death usually occurs within days of the onset of these symptoms. Man is actually an accidental host. Some people with superstitious believe that by burning the hair of the animal at the bite site, it gets heal, while some are ashamed of what his/her pet has caused or for that matter, kept in hush! hush! conditions and so on and so forth.
The first step of post exposure treatment is immediate and thorough wound cleansing and flush with soap and water and then vaccinate immediately after exposure to rabid or suspected rabies animals. A post bite vaccine of 5 doses are required, given at 0 day followed by 3rd, 7th, 14th, 28th,30th, 90th day. The former 3 dose is utmost important, if one misses any one of the former 3 schedules then it has to start all over again. Rabies represents an economic blockade for both developed and developing countries due to the cost of human post exposure treatment and diagnosis other than immunization of domestic animals and wildlife.
In short, say out of 100 rupees spend for post bite treatment, only 10% of the financial source can be spend for vaccination. As we can see, that the most serious losses are the number of humans suffering and killed by rabies. As responsible citizens one need to act, take initiatives by timely vaccination to his /her pets (above 3 months) especially dogs which is just a Vets clinic or Veterinary hospital away , oral vaccination of wildlife animals through baits, etc and thus preventing from the dangers and loss and cost of a precious human life. Immunization is the method of choice for controlling or eliminating the disease (OIE standards).
Different animal organizations, Public Health organizations, Veterinarians, Physicians, as well as educators and we as individuals, are required to play a vital role for control and prevention of such disease through co- operation, conducting vaccinations camps, seminars, questionnaire etc. Other public awareness include proper confinement of animals, proper carcass disposal, and to check the population of stray dogs etc. The health of animal is related to human health and as such, one should know the importance of monitoring and preventing animal diseases and protect the human masses of emerging disease like zoonoses, where rabies is one of them.
As it goes like this, “A person is innocent unless and until proven guilty but for a rabid dog bite case, until proven, otherwise”. Rabies is incurable but preventable, though feared but preventable. Let us apply and be reminded that indeed prevention is better than cure.
This disease was present in Egypt before 2300 BC and also in ancient Greece (Murphy et al.1999). Though it was discovered earlier, it has not been able to eradicate as compared to those of Rinderpest and Madcow disease in animals.
Rabies is caused by Lyssa virus (RNA virus) of Rhabdoviridae family. It is a non-mutated virus, unlike Avian flu. It is an endemic disease prevalent in every part of the world, with some exceptions (particularly some islands). Countries like U.K, Ireland, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Japan, some islands in Indonesia have been free of this classical rabies virus for many years.
According to WHO, a country may be considered to be free of rabies if there has been no indigenously acquired cases in humans or animals, during the previous 2 years , in the process of adequate surveillance and import regulations. As compared to any communicable disease, rabies has never been a major cause for human mortality, but it is the most severe. It ranks 12th on the WHO list of major killer disease (Meslin and Stohr. 1997) , is an OIE list B diseases and currently remains an ongoing threat to human and animal population. About 60,000 human victims die of rabies each year while more than 10 million people require post exposure treatment. The possible routes of transmission are,
1). by direct contact i.e. transmitted from the infectious saliva of rabid animal by direct bite.
2). by ingestion- usually occurs in wildlife among predators and prey.
3). Corneal transplantation from human to human (Kaplan et al. 1986.) etc. The incubation period in humans is from 2 weeks to 12 months, in dogs from 3 weeks to 12 months. The rabies virus infects the central nervous system, ultimately causing disease in the brain and death. The early symptoms of rabies in people are similar to that of many other illnesses, including fever, headache, and general weakness. As the disease progresses, symptoms like insomnia, anxiety, confusion, slight or partial paralysis, ,hallucinations, agitation, hypersalivation (increase in saliva), difficulty swallowing, and hydrophobia (fear of water) appear. Death usually occurs within days of the onset of these symptoms. Man is actually an accidental host. Some people with superstitious believe that by burning the hair of the animal at the bite site, it gets heal, while some are ashamed of what his/her pet has caused or for that matter, kept in hush! hush! conditions and so on and so forth.
The first step of post exposure treatment is immediate and thorough wound cleansing and flush with soap and water and then vaccinate immediately after exposure to rabid or suspected rabies animals. A post bite vaccine of 5 doses are required, given at 0 day followed by 3rd, 7th, 14th, 28th,30th, 90th day. The former 3 dose is utmost important, if one misses any one of the former 3 schedules then it has to start all over again. Rabies represents an economic blockade for both developed and developing countries due to the cost of human post exposure treatment and diagnosis other than immunization of domestic animals and wildlife.
In short, say out of 100 rupees spend for post bite treatment, only 10% of the financial source can be spend for vaccination. As we can see, that the most serious losses are the number of humans suffering and killed by rabies. As responsible citizens one need to act, take initiatives by timely vaccination to his /her pets (above 3 months) especially dogs which is just a Vets clinic or Veterinary hospital away , oral vaccination of wildlife animals through baits, etc and thus preventing from the dangers and loss and cost of a precious human life. Immunization is the method of choice for controlling or eliminating the disease (OIE standards).
Different animal organizations, Public Health organizations, Veterinarians, Physicians, as well as educators and we as individuals, are required to play a vital role for control and prevention of such disease through co- operation, conducting vaccinations camps, seminars, questionnaire etc. Other public awareness include proper confinement of animals, proper carcass disposal, and to check the population of stray dogs etc. The health of animal is related to human health and as such, one should know the importance of monitoring and preventing animal diseases and protect the human masses of emerging disease like zoonoses, where rabies is one of them.
As it goes like this, “A person is innocent unless and until proven guilty but for a rabid dog bite case, until proven, otherwise”. Rabies is incurable but preventable, though feared but preventable. Let us apply and be reminded that indeed prevention is better than cure.
