From dogs to bats: Concerns regarding vampire bat-borne rabies in Brazil

Abstract

Human rabies is a neglected reemerging disease that has a major impact on public health in poor communities and low-and middle-income countries With a lethality of almost 100% worldwide, rabies has an incidence of approximately 59,000 cases per year in 150 countries Rabies is transmitted by exposure to the saliva of infected animals, and it is 100% vaccine preventable Every year, more than 15 million people worldwide receive pre-exposure prophylaxis and 29 million receive a post-bite vaccination, which is estimated to prevent thousands of rabies deaths annually With a worldwide distribution of cases of the disease, the largest number occur in Asia and Africa, which together account for 95% of all human cases, with 99% acquired from the bite of an infected dog Globally, canine rabies causes approximately 59,000 human deaths annually