The Requirements For Rabies Shots for Dogs

Dog vaccination programs in developing countries could eliminate human cases of the deadly disease, a new study suggests.

Rabies shots for dogs is rare in developed countries due to widespread vaccination of dogs. However, the disease kills about 69,000 people worldwide each year, or 189 per day. Forty percent of the victims of rabies are children, mainly in Africa and Asia, according to background information in the study.

The saliva of infected dogs is the main source of infection in people.

"The irony is that rabies shots for dogs is 100 percent preventable. People should not be dying at all," study co-author Dr. Guy Palmer, an infectious disease expert veterinarian and director of the University School of Washington State animal health, in a news release from the university.

The political complacency and lack of international commitment are some of the reasons why rabies in people persist even if the elimination of the disease "meets all the criteria for a global health priority: It is epidemiologically and logistically possible, profitable and socially equitable, "the researchers wrote in the Sept. 26 edition of the journal Science.

The study cites the success of mass vaccination clinics dogs in the African nation of Tanzania. The clinics are held in 180 villages and vaccinate up to 1,000 dogs a day, according to researchers.

Since the program began in 2003, has vaccinated about 70 percent of dogs in the area and the number of people killed by rabies fell about 50 per year to almost zero, according to researchers.