One Health responses to prevent the occurrence of rabies due to attacks by a rabid stray dog

Abstract

Background: The number of human rabies cases caused by pet dogs in Guangzhou has been decreasing after years of comprehensive interventions. Consequently, attacks by stray dogs become a major issue in rabies control.

Objectives: To share our experience of successfully dealing with rabies to provide some inspiration for prevention and control in countries and regions affected by it.

Methods: A multidisciplinary One Health response was initiated to control this outbreak. Rabies virus was detected by PCR in the brain tissue of the associated stray dog. The sequences were aligned with reference sequences downloaded from GenBank using ClustalX. The maximum likelihood method implemented in MEGA 5.0 software package was used in a phylogenetic analysis of the aligned sequences.

Results: Twelve patients with exposure to the stray dog were identified in the field investigation. Rabies vaccines and immunoglobulin were administered to all patients within 48 h. After 1 year of follow-up, no exposed patients showed symptoms. Maximum likelihood analysis of the nucleotide sequences obtained from the PCR products indicated that the rabies virus in the dog was closely related to isolates from neighbouring provinces of Guangdong as well as those from surrounding countries of China.

Conclusions: Multidisciplinary One Health intervention is effective not only in the control of rabies but also in rapid emergency responses to attacks by rabid stray dogs.

Keywords: One Health; health policy; infectious diseases; public health; rabies.