Awareness of rabies and response to dog bites in Bangladesh

Photo Credit: CDC/Barbara Andrews

Veterinary Medicine and Science recently published an  interesting article about rabies and treatments for both humans and animals in Bangladesh. 

It is interesting to compare the differences of rabies cases and treatments between the United States and Bangladesh. According to the Center for Disease Control, more than 90% of all animal cases reported annually to CDC [in the United States] now occur in wildlife; before 1960 the majority were in domestic animals. The principal rabies hosts today are wild carnivores and bats. In Bangladesh, the source is domestic and feral dogs. The number of rabies-related human deaths in the United States has declined from more than 100 annually at the turn of the century to one or two per year in the 1990’s [CDC, 2018].

Below is an excerpt from the article.

Rabies is an invariably fatal viral zoonotic disease that can infect all mammals, but domestic dogs are the source of over 99% of human infections (WHO, 2013). Worldwide, an estimated 29 million people receive post‐exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for rabies each year and more than 59 000 people die of rabies (Hampson et al. 2015), primarily due to poor rabies control measures. Human rabies can be prevented through immediate administration of PEP following exposure to rabid animals (Hemachudha et al. 2002). However, people in low‐income countries, especially the poor portion of society, may not receive these life‐saving treatments because either the PEP treatment is expensive and not readily available or people may not visit the hospital to receive treatment due to lack of knowledge about rabies (Kayali et al. 2003; Knobel et al. 2005; Hampson et al. 2008) [Gosh, et a;., 2016]

Follow this link for the entire article.

References:

CDC [Center for Disease Control]. Rabies in the U.S., online. [Accessed on 7/10/2018]. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/location/usa/index.html

Sumon Ghosh  Sukanta Chowdhury  Najmul Haider  Rajub K. Bhowmik  Md. S. Rana Aung S. Prue Marma  Muhammad B. Hossain  Nitish C. Debnath  Be‐Nazir Ahmed, 2016. Veterinary Medicine and Science. 2:3. Pp.161-169 https://doi.org/10.1002/vms3.30 

  

Photo Credit: Content Providers: CDC/Barbara Andrews - This media comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Public Health Image Library (PHIL), with identification number #2614. Note: Not all PHIL images are public domain; be sure to check copyright status and credit authors and content providers., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3838566