WHO Regional Office for South East Asia
The annual Rabies in the Americas (RITA) conference was held on October 23-28th in Belem, Brazil in the heart (and the heat!) of the Amazon region and brought together veterinarians, public health officials, academics and students to present and discuss the latest research on rabies and how to control and prevent its spread in domestic animals and wildlife in the Americas.
A recent article by Mani et al. discusses a new trend in India: within the last 6 years there have been six survivors of clinical rabies contracted from dogs. The authors attribute this upward trend in survival to increased access to conventional critical care facilities and more doctors trying to save rabies patients.
In 2015–16, a collaborative project between WSU and MSD Animal Health began investigating whether the commonly-used canine rabies vaccine Nobivac® Rabies had thermotolerant properties. The first phase of this trial, which investigated the effect that various levels of non cold-chain storage had on the potency of the vaccine, indicated that this vaccine retained its efficacy following storage at 25°C for six months and 30°C for three months.
Emergency Departments in Karachi’s three major hospitals report over 100 dog bites a day, but most victims stay home and literally rub salt into the wound. The Indus Hospital's dog bite management center is changing community attitudes and improving practices.
Recently developed rapid immunodiagnostic tests for rabies diagnosis promise testing outside the laboratory, require virtually no equipment and minimal training, and produce a result in minutes. Such tests are available on the market now, but do they work?
