 |
28 09.2021
World Rabies Day is celebrated annually around the world on 28 September. The purpose of the Day is to draw public attention to the acute problem of the spread of rabies throughout the world.
|
The date was established in 2007 in the United States at the initiative of the Global Rabies Control Alliance and is dedicated to the death of Louis Pasteur, a microbiologist, one of the creators of a vaccine against this disease.
The incidence of rabies remains a serious and unresolved public health and veterinary problem. According to the WHO, more than 55 thousand people die from this disease every year in the world. Rabies is reported in more than 150 countries around the world. The most disadvantaged regions of the world in terms of rabies incidence are Southeast Asia (India, China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Laos, Indonesia and other Asian countries). Moreover, 40% of the animals suspected of being bitten by rabies are children under the age of 15. More than 29 million people receive rabies vaccinations after animal bites, preventing hundreds of thousands of rabies deaths each year.
Rabies (hydrophobia, rabies disease) is a viral zoonosis affecting wild and domestic animals. In developed countries, the carriers of the virus are mainly wild animals, from which the disease is transmitted to domestic animals and people. Infection in humans usually occurs as a result of a deep bite or scratch inflicted on an infected animal, with up to 99% of transmissions to humans occurring from rabid dogs. The global economic burden of rabies transmitted by dogs is estimated at 8.6 billion annually worldwide. USD per year.
In the Russian Federation, a significant decrease in the incidence of rabies among people began in the late 60s of the last century, which is associated with the development of a system for providing anti-rabies care to the population. For more than forty years in our country, from 4 to 22 cases of the disease have been recorded annually. 2000 to 2018 193 cases of diseases were registered among residents of Russia. At the same time, from 250 to 450 thousand people apply for medical help in connection with an animal attack every year.
For 6 months of 2021, 5 cases of hydrophobia were registered among the population of the Russian Federation. More than 173 thousand people (118.1 per 100 thousand of the population) applied to medical organizations for bites, salivation and scratching by animals in 6 months of 2021, including bites, injuries caused by dogs, amounted to more than 120 thousand cases ( 69.4%).
The epidemiological risk of rabies is based on epizootological problems. In recent years, the situation has worsened due to the increase in cases of rabies among wild animals, and the number of disadvantaged areas is increasing. Epizootics of a natural type are formed, the fight against which presents certain difficulties, and the number of neglected animals is also increasing. On the territory of Russia, about 3.5 thousand cases of rabies among animals are annually recorded, in total from 2000 to 2018. more than 60 thousand cases have been registered in Russia. The largest number of cases was noted in 2007 (5503), the minimum - in 2000 (1406 cases). Rabies was detected among 33 species of animals on the territory of 72 subjects, in all climatic and geographical zones and had a pronounced uneven distribution over the territories.
During 2021 (from January to August) quarantines for animal rabies were periodically introduced in a number of regions of Bashkiria, Tatarstan, in Astrakhan, Volgograd, Nizhny Novgorod, Omsk, Pskov, Rostov, Saratov, Tambov, Tyumen regions, Moscow. The sources of infection were both wild (wolves, foxes, hedgehogs) and domestic (dogs, cats) and productive animals (cows).
According to the Office of Rospotrebnadzor in the Nizhny Novgorod Region, for six months of 2021, 21 cases of rabies among animals were registered, while in 2019 and 2020 - 17 and 22 cases, respectively. The epizootic situation is maintained mainly by foxes, which account for 52% of the total number of sick animals. Diseases were registered among dogs in 33% of cases, cats - in 10%, among farm animals in 5%. For six months, 3.6 thousand bitten people turned for medical help (11% less than a year earlier), a quarter of them are children under 14 years old. At the same time, 419 people suffered from bites of wild animals - 4.5 times more than a year earlier. Over the past 12 years, 6 cases of human rabies have been registered in the region.
Rabies is a fatal disease. The only effective means of prevention is the timely provision of anti-rabies care to persons affected by contact with an animal. First of all, it is necessary: to carry out the initial treatment of the contact point - rinse thoroughly with a stream of water and soap; in the presence of a wound - after washing with soap, treat the edges of the wound with 5% tincture of iodine; apply a sterile dressing and immediately go to a medical facility. It is very important to take action with regard to the animal at the same time as contacting a doctor - it must be isolated and a specialist in the veterinary service called for consultation and monitoring, the period of which is 10 days from the moment of contact.
The period of infectiousness in animals begins 3-10 days before the appearance of clinical signs and lasts the entire period of the disease. The incubation period for rabies in humans is usually from 10 days to 2 months, although cases of its reduction to 5 days and lengthening to 1 year or more are known.
The first symptoms of the disease can appear in people at the site of the damage inflicted in the form of muscle twitching, itching, pain along the nerves. At the onset of the disease, there is an unreasonable anxiety, fear, increased sensitivity to light and sound stimuli, low-grade fever. Subsequently, attacks of hydrophobia may join: painful spasms of the muscles of the pharynx and larynx when trying to drink, with the sound of pouring water. Every day the disease progresses, paralysis develops. Death occurs from respiratory arrest and cardiovascular activity. Rabies disease can only be prevented by antirabies vaccinations carried out as early as possible from the moment of contact with animals.
The currently used preventive measures, against the background of the presence of natural foci of infection in the vast territories of Russia, do not yet make it possible to achieve the complete elimination of rabies diseases among humans. To tackle rabies, cross-sectoral and multi-stakeholder collaboration is critical on all aspects of public health, including outreach, awareness programs and vaccination campaigns.
Rospotrebnadzor in the regulatory legal documents recommended to take measures aimed at curbing the spread of rabies, namely: to ensure the regulation of the number of stray animals in cities and rural areas, to comply with the rules for keeping pets, to keep records, register and vaccinate them, to ensure the quarantine of animals suspected of rabies, to carry out activities for the capture of stray animals and the organization of their places of detention.
Since 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Global Rabies Alliance (GABB) have been implementing the “Global Strategic Plan to Prevent Deaths from Dog-Borne Rabies , by 2030 ". The plan is based on the concept of "One Health", which reflects the relationship between human, animal and environmental health.
Rabies can be prevented by knowing and following simple requirements: follow the established rules for keeping pets and annually, without fail, vaccinate your pets against rabies in a veterinary institution; purchase animals only with a veterinary examination; not to carry out independent slaughter of sick and destruction of dead farm animals without veterinary examination; avoid contact with stray and wild carnivores.
Compliance with the rules of keeping pets, precautions for contact with wild and stray animals, timely vaccination will save you from rabies!
