SCHAUMBURG, Ill. -- World Rabies Day, Sept. 8, 2007, is a new, international event launching global efforts to eliminate rabies. The inaugural event will remind people that rabies is still a very deadly but preventable disease. Last year alone, at least 55,000 people died of rabies worldwide, including three in the United States, which had almost 7,000 confirmed cases of animal rabies.
In the United States, rabies is still present in bat populations (as well as regionally in raccoon, fox, and skunk) in every state but Hawaii, according to a rabies surveillance report published in the August 15 issue of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association.
The inaugural World Rabies Day includes participation by Canada, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Brazil, Pakistan, Thailand, Ethiopia, South Africa, Germany, Haiti, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United Sates, including veterinary medical school fund-raisers and educational programs by virtually every Student American Veterinary Medical Association (SAVMA) chapter.
"Human rabies can be prevented, canine rabies can be eliminated, and wildlife rabies can be controlled," said Dr. Charles E. Rupprecht, chief rabies officer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "People have no idea that people are dying in the developing world because they have no vaccine. Some developing countries have substandard vaccines, and others don't have anything at all."
The event will include the World Rabies Day Symposium and Expo to be held on Sept. 7, 2007 in Atlanta. Rupprecht, as well as speakers from the Wildlife Services of the USDA, the National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-Borne and Enteric Diseases and the Pan-American Health Organization, will discuss the challenges of rabies control. Jeana Giese, the world's first rabies survivor, will recount her personal ordeal with the deadly
A virus that causes cold-like symptoms in humans originated in birds and may have crossed the species barrier around 200 years ago, according to an article published in the December issue of the Journal of General Virology. Scientists hope their findings will help us understand how potentially deadly viruses emerge in humans."Human metapneumovirus may be the second most common cause ...
LANSDOWNE, Va. -- Forty-two leading U. S. scientists and specialists gathered at a November national forum to consider cutting-edge innovations that may defend America's public health and national economy from outbreaks of dangerous zoonotic diseases, the National Center for Foreign Animal and Zoonotic Disease Defense (FAZD Center) announced.Among those innovations:-- A "Doc in a Box" on every American kitchen table ...
A single vaccine could be used to protect chickens, cats and humans against deadly flu pandemics, according to an article published in the November issue of the Journal of General Virology. The vaccine protects birds and mammals against different flu strains and can even be given to birds while they are still in their eggs, allowing the mass vaccination of ...
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), have identified a virus behind the mysterious infectious disease that has been killing parrots and exotic birds for more than 30 years. The team, led by UCSF professors Joseph DeRisi, PhD, and Don Ganem, MD, also has developed a diagnostic test for the virus linked to Proventricular Dilation Disease, or PDD, ...
The United States is currently experiencing a severe shortage of human rabies vaccine, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.Pre-exposure vaccinations of veterinary, animal control, game wardens, laboratory and other high-risk personnel are “on hold” until the vaccine shortage is resolved.Ronald Warner, DVM, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the Texas Tech ...
Bacteria and viruses are the microscopic organisms – otherwise known as germs -- that are responsible for causing and transmitting illness and disease. These microbes are so small, that according to the American Society for Microbiology, if the smallest of all microbes was the size of a baseball, an average bacterium would then be the size of the pitcher's mound, and just one of the millions of cells that make up your body would be the size of the ballpark!
