scholarly journals Notes from the Field: Three Human Rabies Deaths Attributed to Bat Exposures — United States, August 2021

2022 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-32
Author(s):  
Amber Kunkel ◽  
Faisal S. Minhaj ◽  
Florence Whitehill ◽  
Connie Austin ◽  
Christine Hahn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rabies

New Rabies Vaccine

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-132
Author(s):  
Stanley A. Plotkin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Immune Globulin ◽  
The United States ◽  
Rabies Vaccine ◽  
Nerve Tissue ◽  
Human Rabies ◽  
Active Immunity ◽  
Four Score ◽  
Vaccine Failures ◽  
Subsequent Replacement

Four score and 16 years after Louis Pasteur brought forth the first rabies vaccine in 1884,1 a new vaccine was licensed in the United States. Pasteur's vaccine made protection of man against rabies possible, even after a victim had been bitten. However, there were failures of prevention and the presence of nerve tissue in the vaccine resulted in severe neurologic reactions, including encephalopathy.2 The introduction of animal antirabies serum by Koprowski and Black3 and the subsequent replacement of animal serum by human rabies immune globulin developed by Cabasso et al4 reduced the number of vaccine failures by providing passive rabies antibodies before the active immunity induced by vaccination.

scholarly journals Imported Human Rabies Cases in Europe, the United States, and Japan, 1990 to 2010: Table 1

2011 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 402-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudius Malerczyk ◽  
Lisa DeTora ◽  
Dieter Gniel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Human Rabies

scholarly journals Evaluating Surveillance for and Estimating Administration of Rabies Postexposure Prophylaxis in the United States, 2012–2018

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (10) ◽  
pp. e0009878
Author(s):  
Erin R. Whitehouse ◽  
Marissa K. Person ◽  
Catherine M. Brown ◽  
Sally Slavinski ◽  
Agam K. Rao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
National Level ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Surveillance Data ◽  
Human Rabies ◽  
Accurate Assessment ◽  
Postexposure Prophylaxis ◽  
Ed Visits

Background An evaluation of postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) surveillance has not been conducted in over 10 years in the United States. An accurate assessment would be important to understand current rabies trends and inform public health preparedness and response to human rabies. Methodology/Principle findings To understand PEP surveillance, we sent a survey to public health leads for rabies in 50 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, Washington DC, Philadelphia, and New York City. Of leads from 54 jurisdictions, 39 (72%) responded to the survey; 12 reported having PEP-specific surveillance, five had animal bite surveillance that included data about PEP, four had animal bite surveillance without data about PEP, and 18 (46%) had neither. Although 12 jurisdictions provided data about PEP use, poor data quality and lack of national representativeness prevented use of this data to derive a national-level PEP estimate. We used national-level and state specific data from the Healthcare Cost & Utilization Project (HCUP) to estimate the number of people who received PEP based on emergency department (ED) visits. The estimated annual average of initial ED visits for PEP administration during 2012–2017 in the United States was 46,814 (SE: 1,697), costing upwards of 165 million USD. State-level ED data for initial visits for administration of PEP for rabies exposure using HCUP data was compared to state-level surveillance data from Maryland, Vermont, and Georgia between 2012–2017. In all states, state-level surveillance data was consistently lower than estimates of initial ED visits, suggesting even states with robust PEP surveillance may not adequately capture individuals who receive PEP. Conclusions Our findings suggest that making PEP a nationally reportable condition may not be feasible. Other methods of tracking administration of PEP such as syndromic surveillance or identification of sentinel states should be considered to obtain an accurate assessment.

scholarly journals The Epidemiology of bat rabies in New York State, 1988–92

1994 ◽  
Vol 113 (3) ◽  
pp. 501-511 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. E. Childs ◽  
C. V. Trimarchi ◽  
J. W. Krebs
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
New York State ◽  
The United States ◽  
Human Rabies ◽  
York State ◽  
Big Brown Bat ◽  
Animal Contact ◽  
Bat Rabies ◽  
Human Rabies Case

SUMMARYIn 1993 New York and Texas each reported a human rabies case traced to a rare variant of rabies virus found in an uncommon species of bat. This study examined the epidemiology of bat rabies in New York State. Demographic, species, and animal-contact information for bats submitted for rabies testing from 1988–92 was analysed.The prevalence of rabies in 6810 bats was 4·6%. Nearly 90% of the 308 rabid bats identified to species were the common big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus), which comprised 62% of all submissions. Only 25 submissions were silver-haired bats (Lasionycterus noctivagans), the species associated with the two 1993 human cases of rabies, and only two of these bats were positive. Rabies was most prevalent in female bats, in bats submitted because of human or animal contact, and in animals tested during September and October.These results highlight the unusual circumstances surrounding the recent human rabies cases in the United States. A species of bat rarely encountered by humans, and contributing little to the total rabies cases in bats, has been implicated in the majority of the indigenously acquired human rabies cases in the United States. The factors contributing to the transmission of this rare rabies variant remain unclear.

scholarly journals Bat bites and rabies: the Canadian scene

FACETS ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 367-380
Author(s):  
M. Brock Fenton ◽  
Alan C. Jackson ◽  
Paul A. Faure
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
Small Mammals ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Image ◽  
Human Rabies ◽  
Postexposure Prophylaxis ◽  
The Public

Bats are susceptible to rabies. Although bats may appear to be asymptomatic carriers of rabies for a few days, eventually they fall ill to the viral infection and die. Two of at least four bat-specific variants of rabies virus in Canada have killed humans. Rabies is usually transmitted by biting, but bats are small mammals so their bites may go unnoticed. People exposed to rabid animals should receive postexposure prophylaxis (PEP). With 60 known human deaths from 1950 to 2009, rabies is rare in Canada and the United States of America compared with India where it kills over 100 people annually. In Asia and Africa, most human rabies is acquired from dog bites. In Brazil, dog and bat bites together account for >80% of human rabies. In Canada, rabies is a disease primarily confined to wildlife (foxes, racoons, skunks, and bats). The public image of bats is negatively affected by their association with diseases. Too often bats are victimized by allegations of their role in deadly diseases such as rabies, Ebola, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). In general, bats are not dangerous, but humans should seek treatment if they are bitten by one. (Graphical abstract shows a 4-g elegant myotis biting MBF’s finger—photo by Sherri and Brock Fenton.)

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