Global burden of rabies in 204 countries and territories, from 1990 to 2019: results from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Abstract

Objectives: Rabies is an acute lethal infectious disease caused by a lyssavirus infection. In 2018, the World Health Organization proposed a global strategic plan to end human rabies deaths by 2030. However, systematic studies on the global rabies disease burden and epidemiological trends are scarce.

Methods: We extracted the disease burden and epidemiological data of rabies worldwide in the preceding 30 years from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 and performed a comprehensive analysis.

Results: In 2019, the incident cases of rabies worldwide were 14,075.51 (95% uncertainty interval: 6124.33-21,618.11), and the number of deaths was 13,743.44 (95% uncertainty interval: 6019.13-17,938.53), both of which were lower than that in 1990. With the improvement of the sociodemographic index, the incident cases, the number of deaths, age-standardized incidence rate, age-standardized incidence death rate, and disability-adjusted life years of rabies all showed downward trends. Adolescents and adults aged <50 years represented the majority of rabies cases worldwide.

Conclusion: The global disease burden of rabies has declined over the past 30 years. Furthermore, the disease burden of rabies was closely related to the sociodemographic index level.

Keywords: Disability-adjusted life years; Global disease burden; Mortality; Prevalence; Rabies.