How to Stop Rabies Deaths Worldwide: Mass Dog Vaccinations

Rabies is a deadly and painful virus and now, scientists may have come up with a solution to eliminate it for good. Researchers have found that rabies can be eliminated among humans by stopping it point-blank among dogs.

A rabies vaccine has long existed, developed by Pasteur in 1885. Yet this disease still kills about 69,000 people worldwide each year; that's 189 per day. A total of 40 percent of the victims are children, mostly in Africa and Asia. Unfortunately, once someone develops symptoms, the chance that he will die is nearly 100 percent.

"The irony is that rabies is 100 percent preventable," said Guy Palmer, co-author of the new paper, in a news release. "People shouldn't be dying at all."

The disease is primarily spread through the saliva of infected dogs. In theory, if a mass dog vaccination program were instituted, it would be possible to rid the world of rabies. Yet the disease persists partly due to political complacency and partly due to a lack of international commitment.

Mass dog vaccination isn't anything new, either. In Tanzania, there's been widespread success when it comes to mass dog vaccination. Working in 180 villages, the Allen School and the Serengeti Health Initiative vaccinate as many as 1,000 dogs each day. Since the program began, the number of people killed by rabies has dropped from an average of 50 each year to almost zero. Not only that, but they only vaccinated only about 70 percent of the region's dogs and still broke the route of transmission from dogs to humans.

These latest findings show the effectiveness of dog vaccinations. Not only that, but they show the importance of taking strides in order to institute programs in order to help eliminate rabies. Because this disease is preventable, it's entirely possible to help wipe out its impacts across the globe.

The findings are published in the journal Science.