- When a person is infected with rabies, the probability of death is practically 100%.
- This disease causes acute and progressive encephalitis, and is fatal as there is no specific treatment against the virus.
- In 2019 Mexico obtained the WHO certification for the elimination of human rabies transmitted by dogs.
The beginning of this 2023 has brought several negative news for the health of our country. Within the list is the resurgence of human rage, which is considered one of the deadliest diseases in the world. When a human is infected, the probability of dying is practically 100 percent.
There are more cases of human rabies in Mexico
The first cases that were reported occurred in Oaxaca and even caused the death of the affected children. While now one more case has been disclosed in sound. The contagion, confirmed by urban fauna in Nayarit, was derived from the attack on a person by a cat without a history of vaccination. In addition, two confirmed cases (one by laboratory and one by epidemiological association) and one probable case were reported, followed by the notification of three more suspects in January 2023 due to aggression by a bat.
Against this background, the National Committee for Epidemiological Surveillance (Conave) issued an Epidemiological Notice of Human Rabies. The document indicates that regarding the recent case detected in a dog in the state of Sonora, nine people who had risky contact with the infected animal are being followed up. The identified antigenic characterization is the V7 variant associated with the gray foxwhich confirms that the dog was attacked by a wildlife animal that infected it with rabies.
The epidemiological notice is addressed to all medical units, epidemiological surveillance and the National Network of Public Health Laboratories. Establishes the operational definitions of suspected, probable, confirmed, and ruled out cases, based on the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
Rabies transmitted by jungle mammals has become more important. The most common transmitter is blood-sucking bat (Desmodus rotundus). In the last five years, 65 cases of human rabies were registered in the region of the Americas, of which 66 percent were transmitted by jungle mammals.
Ministry of Health disseminates epidemiological notice on human rabies.
➡️ https://t.co/rIYY3nNvCj pic.twitter.com/5FTY4mk2NS
– HEALTH Mexico (@SSalud_mx) January 25, 2023
Human rabies is a zoonosis that causes acute and progressive encephalitis. It can manifest itself in a furious or paralytic way. The neurological phase presents with lapses of lucidity and delirium, rapid breathing, paralysis of the cranial, muscular-cardiac and respiratory nerves.
A very high mortality disease
According to the WHO, this virus is distributed on all continents, with the exception of Antarctica, and presents a practically 100 percent lethality. Every year, rabies causes more than 60,000 deaths worldwide. Of that number, 95 percent is concentrated in Asia and Africa, and up to 99 percent is transmitted by dogs.
In the region of the Americas, since the implementation, in 1983, of the Program for the Elimination of Human Rabies transmitted by dogs, the incidence decreased: from 355 cases reported in that year, to two in 2020.
Urban rabies is defined when the virus is transmitted by dogs and cats, and jungle rabies in cases of transmission by bats (bats), coyotes, foxes, skunks, raccoons, and other mammals. Cows, goats, sheep, pigs, horses, donkeys, among others, are susceptible to this disease and can be transmitted by contact with humans.
In Mexico, the incubation period is from six to 249 days, with an average of 69, and the variability depends on the transmitting species and the virus inoculation site.
There is no specific treatment. In the face of serious risk of exposure, application of human rabies vaccine and rabies immunoglobulin is recommended. In case of being mild, only the human rabies vaccine.
In 2019, Mexico became the first country to receive certification from the WHO for having eliminated human rabies transmitted by dogs as a public health problem.
Also read:
SSa makes official the cases of variant V3 rabies in children of Oaxaca
Mexico makes history: It is the first country to eliminate human rabies transmitted by dogs
World Rabies Day: Mexico was the first country to eliminate it