Five human deaths due to rabies were reported in the US in 2021, the highest annual case count in the last decade. Obviously, that’s still a very small number overall and pales in comparison to other infectious diseases in the US, and to rabies deaths in other parts of the world like Asia and
travel
Plague, Cats and Travel Histories
A couple of months BC (before COVID-19), I was planning a live simulation exercise for our hospital. The goal was to see how well we could identify and handle a nasty, reportable zoonotic disease, and to look at our personal protective equipment training and needs (COVID-19 helped with that last one, at least).
Here’s the…
‘Tis the season for travelling (ticks, that is)
A post from guest blogger Dr. Katie Clow, reproduced from our sister site www.petsandticks.com.
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Canine Leishmania map
One of the first diseases that really hit home for me in terms of concerns about canine importation and travel was leishmaniasis. This nasty parasitic disease is something I certainly didn’t learn about in vet school, and it wasn’t on my radar at all until I started getting calls for help managing infected dogs.
As…
Airport dog bite
While waiting in line to check-in for a flight in Orlando, a JetBlue passenger was bitten by a dog. This raises lots of issues and questions, and for the bitten individual, she’s dealing with a pretty nasty bite and also the potential need for rabies post-exposure prophylaxis.
- She was bitten while checking in, so
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Human Rabies: Virginia
Every few weeks I get a call or an email about travel-associated rabies exposure concerns. It’s usually from someone traveling to southeast Asia or India who has been bitten by a stray dog. Most of the time, it’s an unvaccinated person and the dog isn’t available for monitoring or testing. Since rabies is endemic in…
Canine flu strikes again – Illinois
Canine influenza has once again reared its ugly head in fairly spectacular fashion, this time in Bloomington, IL. Apparently there have been numerous laboratory-confirmed cases, and also many suspected cases, and likely still more cases that have gone completely unreported. It’s estimated that “hundreds” of dogs may have been affected already – it’s very difficult…
More dog travel issues
Rabies vaccination for travelers
For an almost invariably fatal disease, people sometimes take a surprisingly lax approach to rabies prevention. Much attention is paid to vaccination of pets (well, not by everyone, but it’s pretty good) – and that’s great, but sometimes people do a better job of vaccinating their dogs than themselves. It’s not because they care about…
Monkey bites in the military
I write a lot about animal bites, and for good reason since they are common and can be very severe. Usually, it’s dog bites. Sometimes it’s cat bites, or more rarely injuries from birds or other critters. Monkey bites not so much, but they happen. I had an email question about rabies exposure from…