Rabies Symptoms in Human and Animal

Rabies is a zoonotic disease (a disease that is transmitted to humans from animals) that is caused by a virus. The disease infects domestic and wild animals, and is spread to people through close contact with infected saliva via bites or scratches.

Rabies is present on all continents with the exception of Antartica, but more than 95% of human deaths occur in Asia and Africa. Once symptoms of the disease develop, rabies is nearly always fatal.

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Hello everyone
Tomorrow will be 28th September and it is World Rabies Day.
Why 28 September? Louis Pasteur was responsible for the creation of the first vaccine against the rabies virus in 1885. He died in 1895 and World Rabies Day is held on the anniversary of his death, September 28.
I read most of your interesting comments about rabies last year but this year nobody mentioned anything about the progress in controlling the disease in Iraq. I need to know your opinions about the control measures used in Iraq. I have few questions & we would like to listen to people involved in dealing with the control measures. Dogs are the main reservoir for rabies in Iraq.
What is the policy?
Who is in charge? Is it only state veterinary service?
Is the policy effective? How they measure progress? Is there any data available about number of dogs, number of people bitten, number of death?
Do you think the current policy working? If no what is your plan? Do you think will be feasible?
I have involved before in killing stray dogs when I was working in Iraq. We used shooting bullets and poison (strychnine sulphate) in pieces of intestine.
When I did my MRCVS exam in UK and in oral public health subject the examiner asked me about the rabies and what are the control measures used in Iraq? I told him that we kill the stray dogs. The next question was how? I told him by shooting them, he said OK then I told him we used strychnine sulphate to kill them, his face was change and he was upset as this method is inhumane. At that time I remembered when I gave strych to two dogs & watched them dying with severe convulsion that took 20 – 30 minutes to die, it was barbaric.
The examiner asked me a question; do you know how France controlled rabies? I told him No. (UK is free and France got a problem with rabies at that time) He told me that they used chicken heads with vaccine spreading them for stray dogs and foxes as foxes were blamed to transmit the disease to other dogs in France.
I think not all control measures used abroad are suitable in Iraq. I agree mass vaccination is very effective to control rabies and chicken heads could be used. However we cannot rely only on it in Iraq. I don’t think my examiner aware about the number of stray dogs in Iraq, it might be thinking only few like UK and they are taken to shelters.
I would like to urge our colleague to exclude this method from rabies control measure not just it is inhumane but it could contaminat water or animal feed if not eaten by dogs.
Thanks for reading this long comments

Ali Alsinead

الزميلات و الزملاء الأعزاء
تحيه طيبه
بمناسبة اليوم العالمي لداء الكلب المصادف 28 ايلول , أليكم الرابط ادناه الخاص بالبرنامج العالمي للسيطره على هذا المرض و الذي ستجدون فيه العديد من الروابط التي تغني الموضوع و المتضمنه العديد من أفلام الفديو التوضيحيه الغزيره بالمعلومات العلميه.
من جانب آخر أوصي الجميع أن يحفظوا الرابط أدناه ضمن خانة الروابط المفضله في أجهزه الحاسوب الخاصه بكم لكي يتمكن الجميع من التواصل مع آخر التطورات و الجهود المبذوله من قبل جميع دول العالم بهذا الخصوص
تحياتي

[ندعوك للتسجيل في المنتدى أو التعريف بنفسك لمعاينة هذا الرابط]

Dear Dr Ali & Dr Harith
Dr Ali Jafar has explained clearly the situation regarding control of Rabies in Iraq. Dr Ali is a brilliant epidemiologist with extensive practical and academic knowledge.
Dr Harith – thanks for the link.
I would like to clear my point. The reason of asking questions in my comments is to create a debate between us and to listen to different ideas from colleagues and to share knowledge that suitable to Iraq.
There are thousands of researches, a lot of books and links to website with a lot of knowledge; however our aim is to find which control measures are suitable to Iraq depending on infrastructure of veterinary service, resources, and facilities and funding.
I agree nowadays disease tackled globally like avian flu and Rabies that is why we see one plant one health initiative evolve, and few diseases talked by region. However each country has its own circumstances need to be taken into account when we agree control measures.
Back again to Rabies, Dr Ali highlighted lack of data as a problem. Can anybody think about more problem affect the control of Rabies in Iraq?
What do you think about involving public in the control? Is it right to encourage people to catch (dog & cats) and reward them with money?
I would like all our colleagues to engage in this discussion so that we can identify problems facing Rabies control and solutions suggested.
Finally many thanks to Dr Mohanad and the people working with him for their great efforts to establish this forum and give us opportunity to exchange ideas with our veterinarian colleagues.
Ali Alsinead

Thanks Dr Ali for the information,
Let us concentrate on Iraq. I think dogs are the main reservoir in Iraq & Middle East as there is no vampire bat in the area. So whatever the strain of the virus the main source is dogs and the number of stray dogs need to be under control. I agree you cannot eradicate the disease in such a country like Iraq for the reason you mentioned but if you manage to minimise the number of stray dogs, subsequently the number of rabies case will be minimised. We will not discuss the role of vaccination here.
Before I stop writing about this subject I would like to bring attention of our colleague about wrong policy carried out. The policy was asking people to catch & bring (dogs & cats) to get some money for that. The main reason to control stray dogs is minimise contact between those stray animals and people because we do not know whether they are infected with rabies or not. Also there is a risk from Echinococcus granulosus or E. multilocularis. So I think this measure need to be stopped because the aim of the policy is to protect the public from these diseases
Dr Mohanad, your efforts are appreciated.
Ali Alsinead