World Rabies Day - September 28
Florida Department of Health and partners Florida Department of Agriculture,
Florida Animal Control Association, University of Florida College of Veterinary
Medicine, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Florida Wildlife
Rehabilitators Association and the Florida representatives for the United States
Humane Society are in support of the World Rabies Day mission to raise awareness
about: 1) the impact of human and animal rabies, 2) how easy it is to prevent
rabies from occurring, and 3) how to eliminate the main global sources.
Global Alliance for Rabies
Control
(GARC) [edited]
http://www.rabiescontrol.net/news/news-archive/annual-number-of-deaths-from-rabies-hits-70000-worldwide.html
Annual number of deaths from rabies hits 70,000
The Global Alliance for Rabies Control (GARC) today [28 Sep 2011] announces that
preliminary data released this month at the OIE Global Conference on Eliminating
Rabies has estimated 70 000 people worldwide die each year from rabies at a cost
of USD 4 billion.
The research, released to mark the importance of
World Rabies Day [28 Sep 2011], shows that deaths from rabies are on the
increase, with the disease reaching epidemic proportions in certain parts of the
world.
It also confirms rabies as one of the most lethal
zoonotic, or animal-transmitted diseases, killing more people each year than
SARS, H5N1, and dengue fever, combined.
Although rabies is entirely preventable, controlling the disease has been
elusive in large portions of the developing world due to a lack of resources
with which to carry out vaccination programmes. The subsequent epidemic has
wrought a disproportionate effect on the young, with one child dying every 10
minutes from the disease.
Rabies places a dreadful economic burden on the
populations where it strikes, but this is only half the story, as it also brings
untold pain and suffering to victims and survivors. This is made all the worse
by the fact that we know it is preventable, and we call on governments and
health authorities around the world to join us in taking action," said Professor
Deborah Briggs, executive director, GARC.
"Research has proven that in those parts of the
world where dog rabies is present and comprehensive dog vaccination programmes
have been carried out in conjunction with an improvement in educational
awareness and availability of human vaccines, deaths from rabies have been
reduced to zero. Our pilot schemes show that we can replicate this success
around the world, saving human and animal lives. With the right commitment, this
problem could be addressed on a global scale,"
said Dr Elizabeth Miranda, Asian Coordinator, GARC.
Perspectives
"From a One Health perspective, controlling rabies infection is an excellent
example of the power of human, veterinary, and public health communities joining
forces to address a common issue. The historic strides in successful canine
vaccination campaigns resulted in elimination of canine rabies virus strain in
the United States and drastically decreased human cases of rabies. Yet the
global view, with tens of thousands of human cases, stresses the urgency with
which our work must continue. World Rabies Day is an excellent opportunity to
increase the understanding of the necessity of this work and I commend the
organizers of this Day as well as the tireless workers every day on preventing
and controlling this One Health disease".
- Dr. Lisa Conti, Director, Division
of Environmental Health, Florida Department of Health.
The Division of Leon County Animal Control will join the list of
international partners who are rallied towards Working Together to Make Rabies
History! "Vaccinating your pet is the first line of defense in protecting not
only your pet, but your family and community."
-Richard Ziegler, President,
FL Animal Control Association and Director of Leon County Animal Control
For more, please visit
World Rabies Day Perspectives
Florida Activities
PDF version of map (729 KB)
Table by County and Animal (PDF
58 KB )
Clay County Health Department
world rabies day activity will be on October 15th in Green Cove
Springs Florida. A Florida DOH Zoonotic and Vector-borne Disease Epidemiologist
will be the guest speaker and discuss rabies, animal bites, and tick-borne
diseases with animal control professionals, veterinarians and their staff, and
medical professionals. Other topics include animal/pet emergency preparedness.
Efforts continue throughout the year with Clay County Animal Control and Clay
County Health Department staff providing education and written information for
bite prevention and the latest information for rabies and rabies prevention
(with free CEU).
Collier County Health Department provided public service
messages related rabies prevention and World Rabies Day.
Lake County Health
Department
-
Dr. Claude Jones,
LCHD Medical Executive Director, Marjorie Boyd, Lake County Animal Services
Director, and Paul Butler, LCHD Environmental Health Director, are scheduled to
film a piece on Lake Front TV regarding Animal Bites and Rabies Prevention on
September 20, 2011.
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Greg Weisted, Director of Conservation and Code Compliance, is working on a
World Rabies Day Proclamation from Lake County Board of County Commissioners.
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Sheri Hutchinson, LCHD PIO, is working on local media outlets to run additional
PSAs on Rabies Prevention.
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Dr. Jones is open to assist us with the PSAs or any additional educational items
or events that we would find beneficial.
Okaloosa County
Health Department will
begin their World Rabies Day campaign with a series of 3 press releases
providing rabies and animal bite prevention information.
On October 15, Okaloosa County Health Department (OCHD)
is partnering with the Fort Walton Chamber of Commerce to celebrate World Rabies
Day at the annual Dog Daze festival in Fort Walton Beach. This popular all day
event includes music, pet readings, a dog parade, and canine emonstrations, as
well as games and contests for dogs and their owners. OCHD will provide rabies
and dog bite prevention educational materials at the event statistics and
maps related to dog bites in the county.For more
information, visit
http://www.fwbchamber.org/FWB-Dog-Daze.dogdaze.0.html. OCHD also
regularly has a rabies and dog bite prevention campaign during the 3rd
week of May in commemoration of Dog Bite Prevention Week.
Click here to enlarge image (front)
Click
here to enlarge image (back)
Walton and Holmes County Health
Departments
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Walton and Holmes County Health
Departments will have a rabies vaccination clinic on October 1, at the Old
Ponce De Leon Gym from 9 -10,
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Walton and Holmes County Health
Departments will
have a rabies vaccination clinic on October 8, at Horse-N-Around in Mossy
Head from 12-2.
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Pet Caravan is planning on doing
a rabies vaccination clinic in November for Walton and Holmes Counties.
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Dr. Beck with Santa Rosa Animal
Hospital will be doing a vaccine-a-thon. For every animal she vaccinates the
week of October 3rd she will donate a rabies vaccine for the
Walton County Animal Shelter.
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Dr. Feistma (Aidmore Animal
Clinic) and Dr. Blackwood (Walton Animal Clinic) are doing their annual
vaccination clinics for the hunting dogs in the area.
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Dr. Barr (Freeport Animal Clinic)
is posting signs at his business to promote rabies vaccination for World
Rabies Day.
Walton County Health Department "We currently help a Veterinarian
with low cost rabies clinics when she offers them in our county. We have
developed a new partnership with Pet Caravan and they will start providing
reduce cost vaccine at the local Walgreen periodically through out the year. We
participated in all fairs, festivals, or community events such as "Take your kid
fishing day" by setting up booths and having information about bite prevention
and rabies. We participate in approximately 10 to 15 events a year. The
environmental health office has developed programs for citizens of all ages in
our county to teach bite prevention. We work hand in hand with animal control in
our county. We are currently working with the Animal Shelter and the ASPCA
challenge. The Animal Shelter, Health Department and citizens have formed the
Friends of the Shelter. We are working towards being able to get grants and
develop programs for the people of our county to receive low cost rabies shots
and to spay and neuter their pets. ." -Ewa Bearden, Environmental Specialist
1
Santa Rosa County Health
Department is organizing a
drive through rabies clinic here at our health department on September 28th-World
Rabies Day. It will be from 5:30-7:30 and we have 2 veterinarians and staff who
have volunteered to give the shots to pets in the vehicle. The cost will be
$10. We are also going to have educational display in our lobby. All the
advertisement will be going out soon! In addition training highlighting rabies
prevention, tick diseases, Baylisascaris, and local emergency management
protocols will be provided for local veterinarians (with free CEU).
For more information on additional happenings around the country and around
the world, please visit
www.worldrabiesday.org.
World Rabies Day Talking Points (83KB PDF)
For more rabies information from Florida Department of Health, visit our main
page:
http://www.doh.state.fl.us/Environment/medicine/rabies/rabies-index.html
Of the 2,114 cases reported in 2010, the largest proportion of exposed persons
for whom treatment was recommended reported exposure to dogs (n=850, 46%). Other
animals to which people were exposed include cats (n= 445, 24%), raccoons
(n=241, 13%), and bats (n=144, 7%). Less numerous exposures included contact
with foxes (16), horses (14), otters (12), squirrels (8), bobcats (5), non-human
primates (4), opossums (3), ferrets (3), skunks (2), rats (2), a pig, a cougar,
a cow and exotic animal species. Though horse exposures are generally low risk,
the cases in 2010 were primarily due to exposure of rabies positive animals.
However squirrels, rats, opossums, owned ferrets, and cattle are generally low
risk species for rabies, and there were no cases of rabies reported in these
species. Twenty percent of the animals involved in exposures were reported to be
owned, 76% of these animals were dogs. Reasons for recommending PEP in cases
involving owned animals included face bites, gun shot to the animals head, and
captive wildlife that disappeared. In addition, PEP was inappropriately
recommended in some of these cases. Most 2010 PEP cases involved exposure to
stray (42%) or wild (23%) animals. Types of exposure were primarily bites (80%).
Scratches were reported in 9% of cases, unknown 6%, other in 4% of cases, saliva
in open wound (1.6%), handling (1.4%), bat in the room (1.3%) and saliva on a
mucous membrane (<1%) were also reported. Face bites were reported in 99 cases
(5%) and typically involved children (average case age years). Rabies PEP was
recommended in 1,992 cases but treatment was only known to be initiated 70% of
the time; reasons for PEP not being initiated included patient refusal or
inappropriate treatment recommendation by the health care provider.
