According to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday, the United States is free of the dog specific form of rabies known as canine rabies.
This does not mean all rabies has gone, only the strain that can be transmitted from dog to dog. It is still rife in the bat, racoon and skunk population and dogs and humans can still become infected if bitten by one of these animals.
Chief of the CDC Rabies Program, Dr Charles Rupprecht, said that:
“The elimination of canine rabies in the United States represents one of the major public health success stories in the last 50 years.”
“However, there is still much work to be done to prevent and control rabies globally,” he added.
The announcement coincided with World Rabies Day, but Dr Deborah Briggs, Executive Director of Alliance for Rabies Control said the CDC news should be seen as more than a “one day event”:
“This is the first-step in a long-term effort towards human rabies prevention and animal rabies control globally.”
Over the last decades US state and local public health authorities have been “working tirelessly” to prevent and control rabies said the CDC in a prepared statement. Rupprecht expressed his thanks to the “tremendous historical efforts at the state and local levels over the past several decades”.
“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 US,” said Rupprecht.
A three pronged strategy of dog vaccination, licensing, and controlling stray dogs has helped to eliminate canine rabies from the US. Rupprecht said canine rabies could be eliminated in the Western Hemisphere.
Risks still exists however, and a major one is the adoption of dogs into the US from other countries. This highlights the need for global control, at local and national levels, said the CDC statement. The US must continue to be vigilant and continue with the three pronged strategy to maintain its status as a canine rabies free country.
Despite being preventable in humans, rabies, a viral disease, still kills 55,000 people globally every year, equivalent to one person dying of rabies ever 10 minutes.
Infection is usually through being bitten by a rabid animal. The incubation period in humans is typically one to three months, and more rarely, up to one year or more*. It can be prevented with a vaccine but once symptoms emerge it is too late and the patient is unlikely to survive as it is almost impossible to treat.
According to the CDC, the vast majority of rabies cases reported each year are in wild animals such as raccoons, skunks, bats and foxes. Fewer than 10 per cent of reported cases are in domestic animals such as cats, cattle and dogs.
The virus infects the nervous system and causes encephalopathy (brain disease) which leads to death. Early symptoms are non specific: fever, headache, generally feeling unwell. As the disease progresses, other neurological symptoms emerge: insomnia, anxiety confusion, slight or partial paralysis, agitation, hallucinations, difficulty swallowing, and hydrophobia (fear of water).
Once symptoms emerge, death usually follows a few days later.
While the canine strain has been eliminated in the US, humans can still catch it from wild animals, and bats are a particular threat. Rupprecht urged people to continue to have their pets vaccinated.
“The elimination of dog-to-dog transmission of rabies does not mean that people in the US can stop vaccinating their pets against rabies,” warned Rupprecht.
“Rabies is ever-present in wildlife and can be transmitted to dogs or other pets. We need to stay vigilant.”
*An earlier version of this article had mistakenly said the incubation period in humans was six years. Thank you to readers who pointed this out.
Written by: Catharine Paddock