While it’s not really an occasion to celebrate, September 28 was World Rabies Day. Rabies has been a problem for millennia, and it’s not going away any time soon. This viral disease, which is almost invariably fatal, kills 50 000 – 70 000 people per year. Some countries have astounding rates of rabies cases, such as India where ~20 000 people die of the disease every year. Internationally, most human rabies infections are caused by dogs, but wildlife are the main source in some regions (such as Canada and the US) . Basically all rabies infections are preventable with proper access to good medical care and rabies post-exposure prophylaxis, but sadly the thousands of people who die do not receive treatment.
Is rabies controllable? Yes. With measures to reduce rabies in wild and stray animals, pet vaccination, public education measures, good access to medical care, adequate rabies vaccine supplies and adequately trained healthcare personnel, the incidence of rabies can be dramatically decreased. However, these measures require time, money, effort and political will, and those are limitations in some areas.
Can rabies be eradicated? That’s a tough question. Eradicating a disease that can be found in many wild animal species internationally is extremely difficult. It’s hard to envision complete eradication of this virus, as was done for smallpox (a human-only disease) and rinderpest (a cattle-only disease). Both those diseases had the advantage of only being found in one species, making control and eradication much more feasible. However, while we might not be able to eradicate rabies, it’s certain that tens of thousands of lives could be saved every year with good rabies control programs.
More information about rabies can be found in on the Worms & Germs Resource page.