Epidemiology and control of rabies in developing countries : a systematic review

Abstract

Objective: To provide a more innovative review of the published paper on rabies to better inform and guide developing countries in planning long-term rabies prevention campaigns.

Methods: All articles that described the rabies situation and controlling measures in developing countries and published between 01/01/2000 and 31/07/2013 in Pubmed and ISI Web of Knowledge were searched by using specific terms and setting limits, and finally included in this review after being methodological quality assessment.

Results: A total of 10 reviews out of 7383 articles were included in this systematic review. Rabies remains a serious public health problem in developing areas which substantially affects their animal welfare, economic and human health. The situation of rabies in these areas is usually characterized by a high rate of human mortalities, with an annual estimate of more than 30,000. India is affected by rabies the most, suffering from rabies with at least 20,000 rabies deaths reported every year. However, only a few developing countries showed a reduction on human rabies deaths through implementing effective programmes during the last decades. In order to successfully control and eliminate rabies deaths in developing countries, some important tasks should be taken into account, such as cost-effective vaccines, dog rabies control, sensitive surveillance system and so on.

Discussion, Conclusion: Since the rabies is prevalent in most developing countries, national rabies control and elimination calls for efforts from all sides. Nevertheless, it is believed that rabies elimination would be achievable in developing areas if vaccines can be improved, efficient control programmes can be undertaken and more inside and outside support can be received.