Rabies

Abstract

Rabies virus is a pathogen well adapted to the mammalian nervous system where it infects the neurons. It causes rabies, an acute encephalomyelitis, fatal in most mammalian species, and humans in particular. Rabies virus is transmitted by saliva of an infected animal-mainly dogs-through bites or scratches. Once the virus has entered the central nervous system, no therapeutic treatment can battle the infection and rabies is almost invariably fatal. Successful invasion of the nervous system by rabies virus seems to be the result of a subversive strategy based on the survival of infected neurons. However, rabies can be prevented by prompt post-exposure treatment with injection of killed rabies vaccine altogether with rabies-specific immunoglobulins. Post-exposure treatment of rabies requires public information, access to medical facilities and availability of efficient post-exposure rabies vaccine, which are lacking in most parts of the world. Rabies still causes more than 70,000 deaths a year, half of them in children, and remains a severe threat for humans. The next important challenges would be the oral vaccination of stray dogs and pre-exposure vaccination of young individuals in endemic countries.