Rabies

— Rabies is an endemic zoonotic disease in India. Dog is the main reservoir of rabies in India and other developing countries? An estimated 20565 deaths are reported in India due to rabies annually. It is a universally fatal disease but preventable by timely post-exposure prophylaxis. The current study was undertaken to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices towards animal bites and rabies in an urban community catered to Urban Health Centre, Santa Cruz, North Goa. 150 adult family members, one from each randomly selected family from the urban community catered to Urban Health Centre, Santa Cruz, North Goa were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire regarding their personal details and their knowledge attitude and practices about animal bites and towards rabies. Out of the 150 study participants, 132 (88%) were aware of the disease rabies and majority i.e. 140 (93%) knew that dog bites lead to rabies. However only 60 (40%) were aware of other animal bites causing rabies. 116 (77%) of study subjects preferred a hospital for wound treatment. However a significant 34 (22%) preferred traditional remedy or healer. Nearly one third i.e. 44 (29%) of the study subjects preferred to observe the dog for at least ten days following dog bite before being advised the same at health facility. 47 (31.33%) of the study participants had been bitten by a dog in the past of which 35 (74.47%) were bitten by a stray dog. 62 (41.33%) owned a pet dog of which 32 (51%) were vaccinated.

India bears the highest burden of global dog-mediated human rabies deaths. Despite this, rabies is not notifiable in India, and continues to be underprioritized in public health discussions. This review examines the historical treatment of rabies in British India, a disease which has received relatively less attention in the literature on Indian medical history. Human and animal rabies was widespread in British India and treatment of bite victims imposed a major financial burden on the colonial Government of India. It subsequently became a driver of Pasteurism in India and globally and a key component of British colonial scientific enterprise. Efforts to combat rabies led to the establishment of a wide network of research institutes in India and important breakthroughs in development of rabies vaccines. As a result of these efforts, rabies no longer posed a significant threat to the British and it declined in administrative and public health priorities in India towards the end of co...

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate species identification and rabies virus (RABV) characterization among samples from bats submitted for rabies testing in the United States and assess whether a standardized approach to specimen selection for RABV characterization could enhance detection of a sentinel event in virus dissemination among bats.
SAMPLE
United States public health rabies surveillance system data collected in January 2010 through December 2015.
PROCEDURES
The number of rabies-tested bats for which species was reported and the number of RABV-positive samples for which virus characterization would likely provide information regarding introduction of novel RABV variants and translocation and host-shift events were calculated. These specimens were designated as specimens of epizootiological importance (SEIs). Additionally, the estimated test load that public health laboratories could expect if all SEIs underwent RABV characterization was determined.
RESULTS
Species was reported for 74,928 of 160,017 (47%) bats submitted for rabies testing. Identified SEIs were grouped in 3 subcategories, namely nonindigenous bats; bats in southern border states, Florida, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands; and bats of species that are not commonly found to be infected with RABV. Annually, 692 (95% CI, 600 to 784) SEIs were identified, of which only 295 (95% CI, 148 to 442) underwent virus characterization. Virus characterization of all SEIs would be expected to increase public health laboratories’ overall test load by 397 (95% CI, 287 to 506) samples each year.
CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Species identification and RABV characterization may aid detection of a sentinel event in bat RABV dissemination. With additional resources, RABV characterization of all SEIs as a standardized approach to testing could contribute to knowledge of circulating bat RABV variants. (J Am Vet Med Assoc 2020;256:77–84)

Human rabies is known to be endemic in countries bordering Lebanon, but its prevalence in Lebanon has not been studied before. All eight cases of human rabies reported to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health between 1991 and 1999 were reviewed, as well as three other cases admitted to the American University of Beirut Medical Center. A total of 1102 cases of animal bites to humans, the majority of which were dog bites, were reported to the Ministry of Public Health between 1991 and 1996. In this period, 2487 doses of rabies vaccine were administered to the above group, as post-exposure prophylaxis. Veterinarians, a high risk and educated group, were interviewed, and only 7 out of 72 were found to have been vaccinated. Major improvements in surveillance and reporting, better control of animal rabies, more awareness especially among high risk groups, and regional cooperation, are all needed to prevent and control this deadly infection.

Two rabies post-exposure therapies were comparatively evaluated: BALB/c mice were challenged at day 0 with rabies virus and then received either a single dose of rabies DNA vaccine administered at day 0, or five doses of cell culture-derived rabies vaccine administered at days 0, 3, 7, 15 and 28. Both regimens, rapidly triggered protective levels of neutralizing antibodies against rabies virus in vaccinated mice. In addition, one injection of DNA vaccine protected 53% of the challenged mice, compared to 40% of mice protected after five injections of cell culture-derived vaccine. We conclude that rabies post-exposure vaccination in BALB/c mice, based on a single administration of rabies DNA vaccine might be at least as effective as five injections of cell culture-derived vaccine.

In a context of stark opposition between supporters and opponents to the wolf, the extent to which this particular predator is dangerous for humans is still an open question.
What lies beneath the negative perception of the wolf?
What should be the historian's contribution, based on historical sources and historical methods?
Thanks to a database of 4,700 cases of wolf attacks on human having occurred in France between 1580 and 1880, it is now possible to grasp the chronological evolution and spatial evolution of wolf related risks.
Undeniably real, though mostly belonging to a remote past, and statistically rare, though anthropologically intolerable, these attacks point to two opposite groups, predatory wolves occasionally preying on humans on one hand, rabid wolves striking indiscriminately a whole population on the other.
The attacks of the first kind occurred regularly in an unsafe environment, and gave rise to tales of "Ferocious Beasts" in times of dramatic crisis (1594-1600, 1691-1694, 1746-1750, 1764-1767, 1814-1819).
The second kind was spatially and chronologically less widespread, but sowed the seeds of mass hysteria, all the more persistent since the underlying sickness it forebode remained without a cure before the last third of the 20th century.
The conclusion between these two different realities gave Canis Lupus its negative aura, significantly dimmed recently however since it has entirely lost its material basis, at least in France.

The author visited Kabupaten Sikka during nearly a decade. He found himself falling over the trails of local and foreign researchers/writers. He records information both new and connective, finding it impossible to forget this amazing place and its people.

Interspecific interactions among mesocarnivores can influence community dynamics and resource partitioning. Insights into these interactions can enhance understanding of local ecological processes that have impacts on pathogen transmission, such as the rabies lyssavirus. Host species ecology can provide an important baseline for disease management strategies especially in biologically diverse ecosystems and heterogeneous landscapes. We used a mesocarnivore guild native to the southwestern United States, a regional rabies
hotspot, that are prone to rabies outbreaks as our study system. Gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis), bobcats (Lynx rufus), and coyotes (Canis latrans) share large portions of their geographic ranges and can compete for resources, occupy similar niches, and influence population dynamics of each other. We deployed 80 cameras across two mountain ranges in Arizona, stratified by vegetation type. We used two-stage modeling to gain insight into species occurrence and co-occurrence patterns. There was strong evidence for the effects of elevation, season, and temperature impacting
detection probability of all four species, with understory height and canopy cover also influencing gray foxes and skunks. For all four mesocarnivores, a second stage multi-species co-occurrence model better explained patterns of detection than the single-species occurrence model. These four species are influencing the space use of each other and are likely competing for resources seasonally. We did not observe spatial partitioning between these competitors, likely due to an abundance of cover and food resources in the biologically diverse system we studied. From our results we can draw inferences on community dynamics to inform rabies management in a regional hotspot. Understanding environmental factors in disease hotspots can provide useful information to develop more reliable early-warning systems for viral outbreaks. We recommend that disease management focus on delivering oral vaccine baits onto the landscape when natural food resources are less abundant, specifically during the two drier seasons in Arizona (pre-monsoon spring and autumn) to maximize
intake by all mesocarnivores.

Background and Aim: Rabies remains a public health concern in Indonesia, and the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has stymied rabies prevention and control efforts. There is a need to transform the rabies program to be adaptable to pandemic situations to improve program coverage on dog vaccination and rabies surveillance. This study aimed to create a rabies control (RaCon) mobile application for a community-based rabies surveillance system during COVID-19 in Bali, Indonesia.

Materials and Methods: We employ the Design Science Research methodology. Surveillance officers, veterinarians, community leaders, outreach workers, and dog owners participated in a series of offline in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. The RaCon prototype was evaluated using the Post-Study System Usability Questionnaire (PSSUQ) framework, which included the system's usefulness, information quality, and interface quality. In this study, we used both a qualitative (n=50) and quantitative (n=342) approach.

Results: According to the findings of this study, integrating public health and animal health into the rabies surveillance system are critical to supporting the One Health approach and encouraging community engagement in rabies programs. The RaCon prototype is expected to include features such as pet ownership, case report, news and announcements, nearest vet, health information, outbreak radar, emergency call, and app feedback. The RaCon prototype passed both qualitative and quantitative evaluations, indicating that it could be used to support the rabies surveillance system, particularly in the COVID-19 situation.

Conclusion: The RaCon prototype was accepted by the users and got positive feedback in terms of the system's usefulness, information quality, and interface quality dimension. As a result, this prototype has the potential to be integrated into the rabies surveillance system in Bali, particularly to strengthen the community-based rabies surveillance system. Even though this prototype received positive feedback, this study focuses solely on the design development and evaluation of its user interface. As a result, further development is required before incorporating RaCon into the rabies prevention and control program.

Background and Aim: Rabies is considered a highly fatal zoonotic disease and many deaths in humans have been associated with dog bites. This study was designed to prepare an oral anti-rabies vaccine in the form of baits to eliminate the disease in free-roaming dogs and subsequently protect humans from dog bites.

Materials and Methods: The Evelyn Rokintniki Abelseth (ERA) rabies virus strain was propagated in baby hamster kidney cell cultures and adjusted to the recommended dose for application. Four forms of oral baits were employed with the rabies vaccine, which was evaluated for safety, acceptability, and potency in different dog groups. Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) and the serum neutralization test (SNT) were used to determine the protective rabies antibody titer in the sera of vaccinated dogs.

Results: According to the results, a dose of 3 mL of the ERA strain, containing a viral titer of 107.6 TCID50/mL, induced a mean antibody titer of 25.6 by SNT, and the PI% was 75.7 by Block ELISA, providing a protective level of the rabies antibody in 100% of vaccinated dogs. All used baits were found to be safe, inducing no abnormal general post-vaccination signs (the signs are limited to mild fever, mild loss of appetite, and mild-to-moderate loss of energy for 24-36 h after vaccination).

Conclusion: It was found that most of the accepted and highly potent bait types consisted of a mixture of wheat flour, vegetable oil, sodium alginate, corn starch, meat meal, cellulose gum, and water. This dog meal was covered with bran and edible wax to seal the bait cavity after inserting the vaccine sachet. This bait was able to induce a protective level of rabies antibodies in 100% of vaccinated dogs after receiving one bait/dog. Hence, such a bait could be recommended for use in the protection of free-roaming dogs and the elimination of the disease.

The wolf long posed a threat to human beings in part because wild carnivorous animals propagated a lethal disease which had no known treatment until 1885.  Indeed this particular carnivorous animal has long been a dangerous rabies vector, with attacks of rabid wolves recorded against human beings as well as animals, both wild and domestic.  Contrary to what happened when healthy subjects were involved, attacks by rabid wolves were far more generalized over time and space.  Ethologists and ecologues have recognized it as a worldwide risk.  While the distribution of such attacks does not follow as much a rational pattern, close range and wide-angle studies of such attacks are of paramount importance for the history of medicine.  Contrary to rabies in dogs and foxes, rabies transmitted by wolves, albeit a long-lasting phenomenon, has never been studied in depth. Thus our proposal provides also a unique oppportunity to contribute to the history of human and veterinarian medicine.  We chose an approach both clinical (with close rereadings of old descriptions of cases of rabies) and statistical, which should enable us to circumscribe both the paths through which the sickness spread and its local consequences.  Our study will describe the chronological and spatial development of rabies occurences and of epizootic years.  A statistical dataset will be built in order to measure wolf impact on the time of incubation of the sickness in human beings.  We will also try to link the occurences of this sickness, for which there was no cure up to Pasteur, with weather patterns and agri-environmental conditions.  In order to generate a retroactive diagnosis, the project will have to rely on the contribution of epidemiologists and veterinarians.

Rabies is a disease that has been known since antiquity. It is a highly fatal acute disease of the central nervous system caused by a lyssavirus. Prior to the discovery of the rabies vaccine, rabies-infected individuals fell victim to the delusions and superstitions associated with this disease. Though it has been neglected in many regions of the world, rabies remains one of the most feared diseases in many developing countries, where it takes the majority of its victims. The virus circulates mainly in domestic and wild carnivores, taking 60,000 human lives worldwide every year and inflicting significant financial damage. It can, however, be well controlled due to the availability of effective Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) protocols. Pasteur Institute of Iran has had a significant role in the establishment of current PEP protocols in the world. In spite of the availability of effective PEP protocols, preventive vaccination would be preferable in endemic regions. Annually, a considerable number of exposures to animal bites occur in Iran. The current situation in the country is well-controlled by virtue of a robust surveillance system and efficient PEP treatments, resulting in considerably low death incidences from rabies. High quality vaccines recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) are expensive and unaffordable in developing countries, where the need for rabies vaccination is greatest. Therefore, there is an increasing need to develop new cost-effective and efficient vaccines requiring fewer injections and providing longer-lasting immunity.

It includes the fight against rabies in the historical process in the Republic of Turkey. Rabies treatment centers, developed vaccines and serums, living deaths are general topics of study. In the study, you can find the story of the first rabies vaccine production in the Ottoman Empire and the abduction of the vaccine to Anatolia during the national struggle. The vaccines are made from sheep and rabbits. With the new plants established in Ankara, vaccines have begun to be bottled. Compared with the examples in the world, mortality rates seem to have remained low at incredible levels. Rabies are usually infected with cats, dogs, horses, monkeys, jackals, mules and people. The most interesting of these is a cock that is a rabies carrier.

A hospital based study was conducted in the anti-rabies clinic of a medical college of Orissa during April 1988 to May 2002. Of 24 clinically diagnosed and reported rabies cases during the four years study period, 62.5% were children below 15 years of age, 67% were males, 87.5% were victims of stray dogs, 79% had not taken any anti-rabies treatment though all had undergone treatment by traditional systems of medicine.

The study was conducted around Debre Libanos monastery from October 2005 to June 2006. A total of 250 villagers, 13 monks and 3 nuns were interviewed using semistructured questionnaire on the knowledge and use of medicinal plants. The informant consensus factor (ICF) and the fidelity level (FL) of the species were determined. Eighty medicinal plant species were reported. The average

Dâü'l-Kelb is a term used in the Ottoman world for rabies disease. Rabies is a viral disease, which is infectious disease seen in both humans and animals. This disease is transmitted with animals especially rabies dogs, such as wolf, fox, jackal, cat that bite or injure related to bite people. The most effective fight against this disease began after Pasteur introduced rabies vaccine to the whole world in 1885. In the Ottoman state, the fight against this disease has been carried on with determination and sincere interest has been shown in the developments in Europe regarding the treatment of rabies. At the same time, research delegation have been sent to Europe and a number of publications have been published on the treatment of rabies, so that disease can be diagnosed more closely and an effective fight against it can be sustained and also hospitals were opened. The Ottoman state has shown great diligence in implementing preventive measures against rabies that threaten public health and safety. This study, aims to present some evaluations on the official interest of the state towards the rabies disease, the attitude of the society, the measures against the disease and the results obtained in the recent times of the Ottoman state.

The dangerosity of wolves for human beings is a staple of old tales such as Little Red Riding Hood or Tom Thumbs.  Is it a historical reality, though?  And if yes, what was the impact on our ancestors?  The perception of the wolf, long very negative in Europe, has become much more positive lately, in a framework of publicly stated worries about biodiversity.  Since the wolf was reintroduced in the Alps in 1992, this reversal of perspective has led to deep rift of public opinion, and increased the tensions between actors of pasture territories ans managers of the environment.  In this debate, often quite passionate, some question the reality of wolf attacks, the reason for the classifying of this predator as the worst of all « pests » for centuries on end.  It is particularly the case of the most negatively seen of all wolf aggressions in the European cultural heritage, that of a wolf held to be a « man eater ».
To delineate more precisely what is at stake and within which limits when this highly sensitive is concerned, we need to find answers to many questions.  Which actual testimonies can we use to assess wolf attacks, and to what extent are they reliable?  How can we distinguish between attacks by « anthropophagous » animals and attacks by rabid wolves?  Can we discern chronological evolutions in these attacks, and which were the most acute periods?  What geographical dispersion can we trace, and what information can we derive therefrom?  How were the aggressors identified, and culturally perceived?  What was the demographic and sociological impact of these attacks?  In a word, what was the actual risk the wolf represented for human beings in France, and can this risk explain the « fear of the wolf » still observable in the mentalities?
To answer these questions, this work uses testimonies and printed sources from over five centuries of observation, from the Hundred Years War to the First World War, and relies on a statistical dataset comprising over 3 000 death certificates dated from 1420 to 1918.
No historical synthesis so far had achieved this width of inquiry, covering the whole French territory.  The book presents the results of 5 years of research for 85 French départements.  Still the work is far from over : the conclusion calls for a wider focus, and more study on other aspects of the relationship between human beings and wolves.  Indeed, beyond the explanation given to a fact which tends to be forgotten today, this study sheds light primarily on the spatial organization of human activity, much more than on the biological evolution of this species.  The wolf reveals social choices, and is a marker of the way our environment is managed.  The story of the « big bad wolf » prompts the historian to communicate his results to the wider public, and reveals the place left by human beings to what is wild in their universe.

Introduction: Rabies is a highly fatal disease. However, it is quite preventable. Community awareness about rabies is one of the key components for prevention, which should be assessed and routinely monitored by standard questionnaires. We aimed to develop and validate a Persian knowledge, attitude and practice questionnaire for rabies (PKAP-Rabies) in the general population of Iran. Methods: The questionnaire was developed based on existing literature and conducting focus group discussions with experts in the field. Content, face, and construct validity were checked by gathering the opinion of 10 experts in the field. Test-retest reliability was assessed by re-administrating the questionnaire to the same individuals after a 15-days interval. Results: The questionnaire consisted of 64 items, covering five domains including ‘demographics’ (19 items), knowledge about animal and human rabies (14 and 10 items, respectively), attitude towards rabies prevention in animals (6 items), and practice towards rabies prevention/control (14 items). The questionnaires were mainly filled by young (mean= 28.6, SD= 10.3 years) women (63.3%) with a university-level educational background (36.7%). Most knowledge questions had a proper difficulty level (average difficulty index= 20-80%). Wilcoxon test also showed proper test-retest reliability for this questionnaire (PWilcoxon > 0.05). Conclusions: The PKAP-Rabies questionnaire appeared to be feasible, valid and reliable for assessing KAP towards rabies in the general population of Iran with potential application in future large-scale surveys. Information from such surveys can provide insight into adopting prevention and control measures, and would allow us to evaluate the impact of current and upcoming interventions.