Rabies in India A Social Issue

The incubation period of 4 days and longer than six years have  been documented depending on the location and severity of the contaminated bite and the amount of virus introduced.

- Riyaz Ahmed Bhat, Feroza Nazir, Ashiq Hussain Bhat, Shruti Chhibber, Sumreen Kour and Muqtaza Mazoor

Rabies is a zoonotic disease that causes acute fatal encephalomyelitis in mammals, including humans and dogs throughout the world and is caused by a virus (order Mononegavirales, family Rhabdoviridae, genus Lyssa virus). Every year, more than 20,000 people die in India due to rabies, which roughly constitutes 36 percent of the world’s rabies deaths each year and most of them are children.

Rabies virus is prevalent throughout the world and can be spread by domestic or wild animals, but amongst these are variation in genetic level specifically related to hosts and geographical areas. Over 99 percent of cases of human rabies are caused by an infected dog bite. Once symptoms of the disease develop, it is almost always fatal.

Most industrialised nations have effectively controlled rabies. Even though the best methods for the prevention of rabies are available in India, the penetration of awareness regarding the use of these is still lacking.

In India, rabies occurs mainly in the urban areas where dogs play an important role as the transmitter of the disease to humans and domestic animals. The reports of vaccination failure and occurrence of rabies have also seen the divergence of field strains of virus with vaccine strains. Control of rabies is a priority for the Indian government, according to its 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17), but the population remains vulnerable because of shortages of antirabies vaccine.

Clinical Signs of Rabies in Dogs