High-risk groups. Risks and Severity. Contacts Viral diseases Michael Peeters. Sanne Terryn. Giresse Hermann Tima. Immune response Olivier Denis. Direct contact with an expert. Vaccination of dogs is the best way to prevent human deaths. Whether you are a pet owner, a parent, an outdoor adventurer, or a global explorer, there are steps you can take to keep yourself and your family safe from rabies throughout the year.
A veterinarian can make sure your pets — like dogs, cats, and ferrets — are up-to-date on their rabies shots and protected from getting rabies.
All dogs and cats should be vaccinated around four months of age, and then again one year later. After these two shots, your veterinarian will develop a vaccination plan that is best for your pet and complies with local laws.
This is important, since animals that have not received a rabies shot and are in contact with potentially rabid wild animals may need to be quarantined or put to sleep. There are things you can do around the home to help reduce the risk of rabies to you and your pets. In the United States, rabies is most often seen in wild animals such as raccoons, bats, skunks and foxes.
One of the best ways to protect yourself and your family is to leave all wildlife alone, including injured animals. Do not feed or handle them, even if they seem friendly. If you see an injured animal, an animal that seems sick or is acting strangely, or a dead animal, report it to animal control, wildlife services, or your local health department. You should also avoid dogs and cats that are unfamiliar to you and your family. This major source of rabies in humans can be eliminated through ensuring adequate animal vaccination and control, educating those at risk, and enhancing access of those bitten to appropriate medical care.
The annual World Rabies Day campaign, first observed in , brings together researchers and partners to accomplish these goals by mobilizing awareness and resources in support of human rabies prevention and animal rabies control around the world. Skip directly to site content Skip directly to page options Skip directly to A-Z link.
Section Navigation. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Syndicate. However, the services were provided at St. This restricts capacity to handle post-exposure emergencies, particularly, by animal owners with limited resources to pay for the services at the University.
Meanwhile, however, the MOH continues to purchase and administer rabies vaccine to individuals who are believed to be at risk after being bitten by animals. As mentioned above, this measure is not cost-effective. Efforts should be made to repair the laboratory in the shortest time period. In keeping with the Dog Control and Regulation Act of , registration of dogs and vaccination of domestic animals are the two approaches that were instituted by the MOH to manage disease transmission [ 14 ].
A study conducted by Keku et al. As such, the provisions of the Control and Regulation Act of should be fully exercised, requiring dogs to be registered [ 14 ] and, thus, providing an avenue for better coordination and monitoring of the reach of the vaccination program.
Free roaming dogs are at high risk for contracting rabies from wild animals, such as mongoose, and can transmit the disease to humans [ 16 ]. Controlling the population of free-roaming dogs is, therefore, a critical step in breaking the transmission line. Registration of other animals, such as livestock, should also be considered for ease of mobilization for vaccination and to monitor coverage. The findings show that, generally, respondents were not very knowledgeable about animals that are susceptible to rabies.
Dog was identified by the majority of respondents, however, only a few respondents identified bat and there was low responses in identifying most of the other animals, such as pig and cattle. Most respondents also had limited knowledge about the signs of rabies in animals. Males were more likely to correctly identify animals that are susceptible to rabies as well as the signs of rabies in animals. This finding may indicate differences in access to information about rabies or the influence of livelihood practices—males are generally more involved in animal husbandry.
In any case, the MOH should conduct an evaluation of education programs to ensure that there is equity in opportunities to learn about the disease. Further studies can also be conducted to investigate factors that may influence knowledge about rabies among males and females.
Hunters, farmers, forest rangers, and other groups that may readily come in contact with animals are at higher risk and should be targeted for education programs. Increasing the level of knowledge about signs of rabies can also lead to increased reporting to surveillance. There was also very low participation in the vaccination program, especially by respondents who owned livestock. Apart from the MOH, vaccination is also provided by private veterinarians and at the animal clinic at St.
Only education was found to be associated with participation in the animal vaccination program. Respondents with higher levels of education—college and above—were also less likely to vaccinate animals as compared to respondents who completed education at lower institutions. This information is critical for the MOH to guide in targeting strategies for rabies education programs.
Apart from the vaccination program, there was limited awareness about the other anti-rabies programs in the MOH. The results show that there was little awareness about the other anti-rabies programs conducted by the MOH, including stray dog control, mongoose trapping, public education, investigating reports of persons bitten by animals, and rabies surveillance.
This finding is also interesting, given that the majority of respondents also stated that they would call the MOH if they were bitten by an animal or suspected that an animal had rabies. The findings may indicate that, despite calling the MOH, the public was still uncertain about the courses of action that may be taken. In addition, there may be a lack of awareness by some community Health professionals of the existing rabies treatment protocol. The MOH should incorporate information about all the anti-rabies programs in a comprehensive education campaign.
While vaccination is encouraged to protect the health of the public, there is no legal mandate for public compliance. As such, to address the low participation in animal vaccination programs, the MOH would need to develop and utilize strategies that are appealing to the public.
The current rate of participation in vaccination is not sufficient to achieve herd immunity. The MOH may consider establishing a committee to develop a strategic plan and oversee interventions to address gaps in knowledge and practices. Among the main reasons suggested for the low vaccination coverage were unawareness of the anti-rabies program and the long time taken to vaccinate animals.
Challenge in transporting animals to vaccination sites was also mentioned. As such, the MOH may need to consider the practicality and feasibility of providing vaccination services on farms and other convenient locations. Consideration should also be given to extending the vaccination programs to weekends and evenings to accommodate employees that work during regular hours.
A fee-for-service system may be considered to support the anti-rabies program. ORV was used in the United States from the mids to date to prevent and control wildlife rabies [ 18 ]. Investigations may be conducted to determine how factors such as climatic conditions, animal species, territorial behavior patterns and physiological characteristics of animals may affect the suitability of this initiative for the Grenada setting. In many ways, the findings in this study were similar to results in other countries [ 5 , 7 , 14 ].
In studies conducted in and — on KAP related to rabies in Ethiopia, it was found that while most respondents were aware of rabies, the majority did not have accurate knowledge about how rabies was transmitted, signs of the disease and prevention and treatment measures [ 19 , 20 ]. Dogs and cats were most commonly identified as animals involved in transmission of the virus and the majority of respondents also correctly stated that the disease can be transmitted through bites from animals [ 19 , 20 ].
These findings in Ethiopia reflect similar knowledge of respondents in this study. In another study conducted in Tanzania in — among 5, respondents, a similar result to Grenada was also achieved with regard to the low proportion of respondents who vaccinated animals [ 9 ]. About half of the respondents, Some insights were provided in a study that was conducted in Bangladesh in with teenage students in two high schools [ 8 ].
The researchers found that there was a low level of knowledge about rabies and poor handling of pets by the students and that increased the risk of transmission of the disease [ 8 ]. Following a deliberate and well-planned education intervention, the level of knowledge and practices improved.
The MOH can benefit from the Bangladesh experience, noting that similar result can be achieved from implementing a planned program in schools in Grenada. There were limitations in conducting this study in Grenada. The representation of male and females in the study were consistent with the census proportions, however, the overwhelming majority of respondents had completed education at primary and secondary school levels.
This inconsistency may be as a result of the time of day that the survey was conducted. People with lower education may likely be unemployed and at home during regular working hours. For studies in the future, one approach that can be taken to reduce this issue is to designate specific hours for data collection.
Some questions need to be revised to be more specific and to improve the quality of the data.
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