Recent research - February 2015

 

Research papers from the last few months most relevant to GARC’s mission.

 

 

General Reviews

Rabies: the clinical features, management and prevention of the classic zoonosis. A new review of rabies diagnosis, management and travel medicine implications.

Rabies vaccines: where do we stand, where are we heading? An overview of the advances made towards controlling the human rabies, particularly in last 10 years, and future perspective.

 

Dog Bites

Study of General Awareness, Attitude, Behavior, and Practice Study on Dog Bites and its Management in the Context of Prevention of Rabies Among the Victims of Dog Bite Attending the OPD Services of CHC Muradnagar. A 2013 study of 250 victims of dog or animal bite, showed very poor knowledge of wound management, rabies vaccination and   rabies in general.

Pre-treatment practices among patients attending an Animal Bite Management clinic at a primary health centre in Haryana, North India. There was a direct association between traditional pre-treatment practices and delay in seeking treatment for animal bites. Health education of the general population with culturally appropriate Information, Education and Communication material is therefore a necessary strategy to reduce delay in seeking appropriate treatment.

Knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) about rabies prevention and control: a community survey in Tanzania.  A study of over 5,000 households revealed factors associated with knowledge about rabies such as education and experience of rabies outbreaks. Awareness of the need for hospital treatment was high, but the need for immediate wound care was not well understood. Determinants of dog vaccination were also investigated and a willingness to pay study revealed only a small owner contribution could be expected.

 

Canine Rabies Vaccination

The demography of free-roaming dog populations and applications to disease and population control. A study undertaken in Bali, Indonesia and South Africa, to understand the demography of domestic dogs. Almost all of the identified dogs were owned and fed regularly by their owners, suggesting population size is regulated primarily by human demand. Substantial translocation of dogs by owners was also observed.

Comparison of mark-resight methods to estimate abundance and rabies vaccination coverage of free-roaming dogs in two urban areas of south Bhutan. A comparison of methods to assess dog population density, which also found that the total number of dogs counted was significantly associated with the time of day. The estimated proportion of vaccinated free-roaming dogs was 56% and 58% in two different neighbourhoods, suggesting an immune buffer in the south is needed.

Review on Dog Rabies Vaccination Coverage in Africa: A Question of Dog Accessibility or Cost Recovery? Sixteen peer reviewed articles were reviewed to conclude that most dogs in Africa are owned and accessible for adequate levels of vaccination against rabies to be achieved if the campaign is performed "free of charge"

Comparison of anamnestic responses to rabies vaccination in dogs and cats with current and out-of-date vaccination status. Dogs with out-of-date vaccination status responded as well if not better than dogs with current vaccination status, as assessed by antibody response. Whatever their vaccination history, cats responded rapidly to the booster vaccination.

 

Wildlife Rabies

Dog ownership, abundance and potential for bat-borne rabies spillover in Chile. A risk map for spillover of rabies from bats into dogs was developed, based on dog population parameters. Cases of rabies in dogs from the last 27 years all fell within high-risk areas of the map.

Terrestrial rabies control in the European Union: Historical achievements and challenges ahead. A review of progress towards terrestrial rabies elimination in Europe through ORV. The elimination of  fox rabies from the EU is almost accomplished. However, illegal movements of animals, funding support for vaccination campaigns and control in Eastern Europe remain challenges.

 

Human Cases

Rabies encephalitis in a child: a failure of rabies post exposure prophylaxis? A case report of a 6-year-old boy who presented with febrile seizure with agitation and cerebellar signs, without hydrophobia or hypersalivation, 17 days after a dog bite in Tunisia. Despite four doses of rabies vaccine and immunoglobulin, he died of confirmed rabies.

Virology, Immunology and Pathology of Human Rabies during Treatment. Case report of a 9 year old who died accidentally 76 days after presenting with rabies of vampire bat phylogeny transmitted by cat bite. Antibody response in serum and CSF was robust and associated with severe cerebral edema, and no rabies virus was cultured following autopsy.

Human rabies in Iran. A review of 16 human rabies deaths resulting from ineffective treatment or erroneous PEP.

 

Surveillance

A generic rabies risk assessment tool to support surveillance. The development of a generic risk assessment tool to rapidly determine the vulnerability of rabies-free islands in Indonesia to best direct surveillance resources. The tool is based on eight critical parameters that can be estimated from the literature, expert opinion, observational studies and routine surveillance and reveals dog transportation by boats as a major risk factor.

Global Positioning System: a new tool for measurement of animal bites in a rural area near Bangalore, South India. Global Positioning System (GPS) technology was useful as a new tool in accurate measurement of animal bite cases.

Re-emergence of rabies in the Guangxi province of Southern China. 3,040 brain samples from normal dogs and cats were collected from 14 districts of Guangxi and assessed by RT-PCR. Re-emergence of human rabies has mainly occurred in rural areas of Guangxi since 1996. The human rabies incidence rate increased is related with RV positive rate of normal dogs.