World survey of rabies, 1997

Overview

The thirty-third world survey of rabies for the year 1997 is based on data received from 103 countries/territories out of 193 WHO Member States/Associate Members which were sent the questionnaire. In addition, other official sources were used, expanding its coverage to 169 countries/territories.

The survey reports on 5 major topics:

• Rabies situation and trends for 1997
  • Human and animal rabies cases and methods of confirmation
  • Presence/absence by country
  • Elimination/introduction of rabies
  • Main rabies epidemiological patterns
  • Trends and geographical distribution
• Rabies post-exposure treatments
• Rabies vaccine production and imports
  • Human vaccines
  • Animal vaccines
• Diagnostic techniques in medical and veterinary laboratories
• Rabies vaccine application to dogs and other animal species, including oral immunization.

The survey also provided information on: the main rabies epidemiological patterns; the post-exposure treatment rate (per 100 000 population); diagnostic techniques most commonly used for rabies diagnosis; countries where oral immunization of foxes and other carnivores is carried out.