Rabies

Rabies is a notifiable disease in many countries.

Preventable through prompt medical care. Post-exposure prophylaxis with wound cleansing, immunisation, and rabies immunoglobulin is highly effective at preventing the disease when given promptly and properly.

Symptoms begin with a non-specific prodromal illness. In encephalitic rabies, this is followed by early-onset behavioural changes and late-onset paralysis. In the paralytic form, the behavioural changes are absent.

Almost always fatal following onset of clinical signs. The disease is rapidly progressive, leading to death within 2 weeks in most cases. Some survivors have been reported.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis is recommended for certain people at high risk for exposure.

An acute viral encephalomyelitis caused by the rabies virus and other members of the Lyssavirus genus, which is transmitted by animal bites, mainly dogs in developing countries and bats in other countries including the US.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has set a global goal to achieve no human deaths from dog-transmitted rabies by 2030.[1]World Health Organization. Zero by 30: the global strategic plan to end human deaths from dog-mediated rabies by 2030. June 2018 [internet publication]. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241513838