According to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), countries of Latin America and the Caribbean are closer than ever to achieving the elimination of human deaths by rabies. Over the last 12 months, just five cases were reported in the region.
According to PAHO, which has established the goal of eliminating human deaths from rabies by 2022, today, Haiti and the Dominican Republic are the only countries in the hemisphere where people have died from rabies. The data was shared on occasion of World Rabies Day that was celebrated on 28 September 2019.
Since 1982, when PAHO began to coordinate anti-rabies initiatives in the region, countries have reduced new cases of rabies in humans by more than 95% and rabies in dogs by 98%. As a result, cases in people fell from 258 to 13 by 2018, and cases in dogs fell from 11,276 to 163 during the same period. This progress was due to the implementation of regional canine vaccination campaigns, greater public awareness of the issue, and the expansion and availability of rabies treatment administered following a bite.
The only way to interrupt rabies transmission is to vaccinate at least 80% of the canine population in endemic areas. In the Region of the Americas, approximately 100 million dogs are vaccinated each year. “If we want to reach the regional rabies elimination goal by 2022, we must strengthen country-level rabies programs in order to improve surveillance and canine vaccination coverage, particularly in high-risk areas,” said Ottorino Cosivi, director of the PAHO/WHO Pan American Foot-and-Mouth Disease Center (Panaftosa).
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PAHO
2 October 2019