PRO/AH/EDR> Rabies, canine - USA: eliminated
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Walter Cottrell
Posted: Wed Sept 12 2007 11:00 p.m. Post subject: PRO/AH/EDR> Rabies, canine - USA: eliminated This is of interest to Pennsylvania as we continue to struggle with bat and raccoon strains.
Walt
-----Original Message-----
RABIES, CANINE - USA: ELIMINATED
Date: Fri 7 Sep 2007
US Declared Canine Rabies-Free, CDC Announces at Inaugural World
Rabies Day Symposium
"The elimination of canine rabies in the United States represents one of the major public health success stories in the last 50 years," stated Dr. Charles Rupprecht, Chief of the CDC Rabies Program. "However, there is still much work to be done to prevent and control rabies globally." Rabies in humans is preventable, yet accounts for at least 55 000 deaths annually around the world; almost one death every 10 minutes. The World Rabies Day initiative, founded by CDC and the UK charity Alliance for Rabies Control and co-sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) and World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), aims to bring together the appropriate stakeholders to raise awareness and funding for rabies prevention and control globally. "We are looking at this as larger than a one-day event," says Dr. Deborah Briggs, Executive Director of Alliance for Rabies Control, "This is the 1st step in a long-term effort towards human rabies prevention and animal rabies control globally." In the United States, canine rabies elimination was achieved through implementation of dog vaccination and licensing, and stray dog control. "We remain optimistic that this official declaration of canine rabies-free status in the United States could be replicated throughout the Western Hemisphere and elsewhere." says Rupprecht. However adoption of dogs from other countries with canine rabies demonstrates the fragile nature of the current canine rabies-free status of the United States and highlights the need for global control and continued emphasis on rabies prevention and control from the local to national levels. "The elimination of dog-to-dog transmission of rabies does not mean that people in the USA can stop vaccinating their pets against rabies," warns Rupprecht. "Rabies is ever-present in wildlife and can be transmitted to dogs or other pets. We need to stay vigilant." Despite the elimination of canine rabies, the disease remains a human threat in the USA particularly from bats. Rabies also remains a potential threat through spillover infections from wildlife to domestic animals adaptation to new animal reservoirs, movement of potentially infected animals, and lack of adequate vaccination coverage of domestic animals, particularly cats and dogs. "We can thank the tremendous historical efforts at the state and local levels over the past several decades for the ultimate elimination of canine rabies in the USA," says Dr. Rupprecht. "Our public health infrastructure, including our quarantine stations, local animal control programs, veterinarians, and clinicians all play a vital role in preserving the canine rabies-free status in the USA."
[The last USA rabies cases in dogs reported by ProMED were in 2007 in Virginia (archive no. 20070503.1433) and Georgia (archive no. 20070104.0040), but it was unclear if the dogs acquired the virus from a wild mammal. Although canine rabies in the USA has been eliminated, there is always a threat to humans or canines of rabies virus exposure from a variety of wild animals in areas where the virus is endemic. As Dr. Rupprecht emphasized, it is important to continue to immunize pet dogs and cats against rabies. - Mod.TY]
[see also:
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Wednesday, September 12, 2007