CONTROL AND ELIMINATION OF RABIES
INTRODUCTION:
Rabies (mad dog disease) is a fatal zoonotic disease caused by genus lyssa virus consist of rabies virus yet it is 100% preventable. About 55,000-60,000 persons dies of rabies ,in which 20,000 (1/3rd) from India alone in each year. About 97% is a dog mediated rabies and also it’s mostly through bite or exposure to dogs. The causative agent for rabies is in saliva of rabid dogs.
In human it causes hydrophobia. Rabies is primarily a terrestrial and airborne mammals disease, including dogs, foxes, wolves, jackals, cats, lions, mongooses, bats, monkeys and humans. The dog is the main reservoir of rabies in India. Monkey, jackals, horses, cattle and rodents seems to bite incidentally on provocation, and the fear of rabies leads the victim to seek post exposure prophylaxis. Monkeys are susceptible for rabies , the number of cases also increasing in last few years and monkey bite also necessitate post exposure prophylaxis. It is an acute viral disease causing fatal encephalomyelitis in humans. Rabies, though a disease of low public health priority. still continues to be a major public health problem in india.while there has been extensive research on the rabies virus, a comparative lack of operational research has led to knowledge gaps in how to design control and elimination of rabies, where it’s a need for “scientific rabies of rabies elimination“.Because rabies is the vaccine preventable neglected tropical disease. This article highlights some of the methods to control and elimination of rabies.
“ IT’S TIME TO DRIVE RABIES”
CONTROLLING RABIES:
Vaccinate dogs and cats against rabies as required by law. All the dogs and cats more than 4 months of age must be vaccinated. Against rabies. keep vaccination current at all times.Keeps dogs and cats under control. Animal control laws prohibit animals to roam unsupervised. Roaming lets are more likely to have been exposed to rabies than those supervised by their owners Leave stray or unknown dogs and cats alone. loose animals are more likely to have been exposed to rabies and to attack others. keep pets away from strays too…..
Leave wild animals alone. Leave them even if they appear friendly and do not coax wild animal to eat from your hand. Do not fear or disrespect wild animals, just respect and stay away from them. very young children can learn this rule.
Do not keep wild animals as pets. Even a raccoon born in captivity may be a rabies carrier. There are no approved vaccines or known quarantine for wild animals.
Feed your pets indoors and keep trash cans tightly closed.
If you are bitten or scratched by the animal means you must have post exposure prophylaxis. If it is a light scratch only means immediately wash off the wound with clean running tape water and flushing with plenty of soap and water for several minutes.
CONTROL OF FOX RABIES:
Rabies in Europe is predominantly sylvatic rabies, wildlife species accounting for approximately 80% of all rabies cases of which 80 % of red foxes, member of canidae family in ancient period conventional method of fox rabies control such as intensive culling or rapping aimed at disruption of the natural route of infection among of foxes by reducing their intensity. But based on these experience this method not decrease the rabies incidence effectively.
PROPHYLAXIS:
Pre-exposureprophylaxis:
Specific prophylaxis ideally given before exposure to infection. In animal it is imperative but human it is practice only for the persons who are at high risk. Due to some complication in neural vaccines newly introduced cell culture vaccines are used for the pre -exposure immunization of human it is safe and feasible also.
Post-exposureprophylaxis:
Specific treatment is continued after infection commonly knowns as antirabies treatment. It consists of local treatment, active immunization with anti rabies vaccine followed by passive immunization with antirabies serum.
ELIMINATION OF RABIES:
Dogs are main carriers of rabies. so eradicating rabies therefore means combating at is animal source. Mass vaccination of the dogs is the method of choice because it is the only real way to interrupt the disease’s infectious cycle between animal and humans. There are many effective vaccines are available that provide a considerable duration of immunity. In countries with dog mediated rabies mass parenteral vaccine remains stay of rabies control. Anti rabies vaccine available in two forms as neural and non neural. The neural may have some neurological complications and or no longer used. Neural vaccines are abandoned now in most part of the world as tissue culture vaccine are available at an affordable cost. Simple vaccine, Beta propinolactone vaccine, suckling mouse brain vaccine are example for neural vaccine. Egg vaccine(Duck egg vaccines),Live attenuated chicken embryo vaccine, tissue culture vaccine are non neural vaccines. Other equally effective both in immunity and cost have been developed. These include primary cell culture vaccine grown on chicken embryo and continuous cell culture vaccines on vero cell line derived from the monkey kidneys. In India cell culture vaccine are available. Human diploid cell (HDC) vaccine. Purified chicken embryo cell (PCEC) and purified vero cell (PVC)vaccines All the three are equally effective and safe also. These are currently used for immunisation in humans. Passive immunisation is important adjunct to vaccination and should be invariably employed whenever exposure us at high risk. HRIG(HUMAN RABIES IMMUNO GLOBULIN ) is limited in availability and more costly. Recommended dose of HRIG is 20 IU/kg of body weight.
Vaccine baits(chicken head or other meat containing live attenuated rabies vaccine) are used for immunization in an attempt to check the epizootic in the forests of Europe. Combining effect of FAO,OIE and WHO as well as other major stake holders including GARC(Global Alliance for Rabies Control)with the aim of gaining support from the countries and funding agencies worldwide to act through existing international health mechanisms including rabies vaccine banks ,reporting systems ,control tools(such as rabies blueprint, rabies stakeholder consultations)and collaboration between animal and human health sectors. Elimination of dog mediated rabies is feasible given political will, adequate resources and diligent programme management.
CONCLUSION:
Co-ordianated actions for eliminating human rabies in the Americas began in1983, with the technical cooperation from PAHO on regional programmes and the operation of epidemiological surveillances system. Achievements due to large cooperation between the health and the agricultural sectors. The importance of primary preventive measures like ABC(Animal Birth Control)and vaccination of dogs need to be highlighted..Then rabies should be recognized as priority public health problem and cell culture vaccine should be made available free of cost at all government health facilities. Other important measures include generation of about rabies and first aid of animal bites."One Health Approach “should be strictly followed to eliminate rabies as per the global rabies conference by WHO at geneva, switcherland. Global freedom from the threat of rabies is feasible within our lifetime with the tools, vaccines and evidence available, an integrated investment strategy and intersectoral approach is needed to make this vision a reality.
REFERENCE BOOKS:
1.TEXTBOOK OF MICROBIOLOGY BY ANANTHANARAYANAN AND PANIKER..
2.FENNER’S VETERINARY VIROLOGY.
3.WHO,OIE’S CONTROL AND ERADICATION OF RABIES ;TIMES OF INDIA.
ELAVARASI. P
BVT16007
4TH YEAR
GUIDED BY
D R. V. RAMAKRISHNAN, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
VETERINARY COLLEGE AND RESEARCH INSTITUTE – TIRUNELVELI
TANUVAS – CHENNAI
