Rabies

Rabies

- DR. Lanka Wijesena, MBBS, MRACGP (AUST)

Rabies is a problem in the tropical paradise of Sri Lanka. The most recent fatality is aid to be a 10 year old French boy who was bitten by a stray dog down south whilst holidaying on our sunny shores in August this year.Sadly, the family did not seek medical advice at the time and two months later this boy succumbed to the horrific course of the Rabies infection and died in France in October 2017.

Rabies is a 100% vaccine-preventable disease and a 100% fatal, zoonotic, viral disease. Although the incidence rates of rabies in Sri Lanka have drastically reduced over the past 40 years there is still more that needs to be done to achieve eradication of the disease by 2020, a target set by the World Health Organisation.

Rabies has been a notifiable disease in Sri Lanka since 1971 and there were a reported 5 cases of human rabies from Jan-June 2016 as opposed to 24 cases in 2015. This significant reduction has been due to the anti-rabies programmes in place by the Ministry of Health (MoH) and The Public Health Veterinary Services of the MoH who are responsible for rabies control in the country which provides free post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) in all Government Hospitals throughout Sri Lanka.

Worldwide the incidence of human Rabies deaths annually is between 35,410-59,000 , mainly amongst children with 95% of these occurring in Africa and Asia.

WHAT IS RABIES?

Rabies is a deadly virus transmitted to humans via the saliva of an infected animal bite.