Rabies - Bulletin - Europe

Rabies Information System of the WHO

Content tagged with all

First large-scale field trial on oral vaccination of dogs conducted in Namibia

Mass dog vaccinations (MDV) and public awareness are key to success in the fight against canine rabies. Vaccinating at least 70% of the local dog population would break the cycle of transmission from dogs to humans and save the lives of several tens of thousands of humans. In many settings, however, where MDV campaigns are implemented still a high number of dogs remain inaccessible, especially the poorly supervised free-roaming dogs.

Spain reports a case of dog rabies in its exclave Melilla

The case has been laboratory confirmed in a dog in the Autonomous Town of Melilla, a Spanish territory located on the northern coast of Morocco. The animal did not show clinical signs of rabies when it was captured on 21 September and brought to a shelter in Melilla where it died on the same day. Obviously, there were no human contacts. Canine rabies is endemic throughout Morocco.

Tragic death of an US citizen due to bat mediated rabies

A few days ago a man in his 80s died of bat mediated rabies in Illinois, USA, after he woke up to a bat on his neck in mid-August. Although the bat tested positive for rabies, incomprehensively the man declined any form of post-exposure prophylaxis.

Germany reports imported rabid dog

Rabies has been confirmed in an illegally imported dog from the municipality of Verden located in Lower Saxony recently. The owner stated that the dog was adopted during vacation in Turkey on 2 September 2021. Eight days later the heavily emaciated unvaccinated Kangal-mixed breed was presented to a private veterinarian after it developed unspecific clinical signs. The dog died during the medical investigation and was submitted to the regional veterinary laboratory for necropsy where rabies infection was confirmed both by DFA and RT-qPCR.

OIE RABLAB network started its work

With inaugural meeting held on 06^th May 2021 the OIE reference laboratory network for rabies (RABLAB) officially started its work. Membership extends to all 12 OIE-Reference Laboratories for Rabies from across the world that form the core group with a vision to continuously broadening the network in the future. The network will meet on a regular basis and discuss appropriate solutions regarding effective capacity building, proficiency testing, vaccination strategy implementation in particular African and Asian countries.

The launch of the United Against Rabies (UAR) Forum was announced at a virtual meeting on 22 September 2020 with high level speakers including ministers, experts and activists from around the world. The first half of the meeting focused on sharing, learning, and understanding, while the second half drilled down into more technical issues and actively sought inputs from participants.

Enjoy watching the meeting here.

https://uarforum.org/

On 22 September 2020, the leadership of the Tripartite announced the formation of the United Against Rabies Forum (UARF) - a new international network of members committed to achieving global rabies elimination. This unique international One Health Initiative urges that sufficient status and political leverage be given so that members, partners and countries can focus on activities that efficiently contribute to the long overdue elimination dog-mediated rabies.

Oral rabies vaccination of dogs – an old idea on the rise

Eliminating rabies – United Against Rabies Forum makes an initial assessment

The United Against Rabies Forum that was officially launched last year has now made a first assessment of its strategic partnership to foster a strong, non-competitive effective collaboration by a wide range of partners’ to achieve the goals set out in the global strategic plan to eliminate human rabies deaths from dog-mediated rabies by 2030.

South Africa reports two human rabies cases within two months in 2021

The South Africa National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) reports two human rabies cases of 2021 from KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo Province in February and March 2021, respectively. Sadly, both victims were children 2 and 7 years of age and had a clear history of biting incident with a local dog. In case of the 2-year-old boy, despite a sustained injury on his head while playing with a dog reportedly no rabies PEP was administered, when the child was admitted to hospital. The boy suffered from typical symptoms of rabies and died soon.

Search form

Content tagged with all

Pages