Johannesburg - A child foaming at the mouth, holding on to bed rails while having a violent convulsion; a seemingly violent, delirious dog growling with saliva dripping from its sharpened teeth.
This is the picture often used to illustrate one of the world’s most fatal diseases - rabies. It claims more than 55 000 lives worldwide each year.
In South Africa, up to 30 cases are confirmed each year. During the first quarter of this year (January to April), Mpumalanga had seen the highest number of confirmed cases at 19. North West came a close second with 14 cases, KwaZulu-Natal had 12 while Limpopo had 10. There were no reported cases in Gauteng during this period.
Speaking at a World Rabies Day symposium at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) on Tuesday, researchers all echoed the same sentiment that what was needed was a shift to having more vaccinations and awareness education.
Rabies is a zoonosis, meaning it can spread from animals to humans through exposure to saliva or nervous tissue from a rabid animal. With the onset of symptoms, there are no proven interventions to prevent death. However, the disease can be controlled in animals and prevented in humans.
“Rabies is a neglected disease. Despite basic solutions for the disease being known and available, there has been a lack of progress in dog-rabies control in vast areas of the world, and those responsible have failed to respond appropriately,” Professor Louis Nel, executive director for the Global Alliance for Rabies Control, said.
According to the NICD’s Professor Lucille Blumberg, most medical students do not even have five minutes of teaching about the disease, yet it is the bread and butter of veterinary students.
Dr Jacqueline Weyer, also from the NICD, said the number of laboratory-confirmed human cases of rabies is considered an underestimate of the true number of cases in the country. “Increasingly, we are having issues with patients or their families consenting to us confirming cases postpartum for religious reasons… All laboratory-confirmed cases are just a drop in the bucket,” she added.
Weyer said rabies was more prevalent in the country’s male children than females, occurred in rural settings predominantly, with 287 cases having stemmed from infected dogs between1985 and 2007.
“Significant developments have taken place during the past few years in the field of rabies prevention and control, and particularly rabies vaccines.
“However, appropriate dissemination of knowledge and implementation by the medical fraternity is imperative for effective prevention and control,” Weyer said.
The Star