Rabies lyssavirus:
Different case studies of rabies infected humans and animals resulted in no possible treatment and ultimate result of death. But evidences prove that vaccination can resist the disease to some extent.
Coomon Symptoms of rabies virus include fever, headaches, muscle aches, loss of appetite, nausea, and tiredness.
Vaccinations such as Rabies immune globulin and rabies vaccine are believed to be effective.
Introduction:
Human dimensions researches have documented Australian’s affection for wildlife. Surveys have found that Australian’s enjoy living with wildlife and value it highly (Miler 2003; Wilks et al. 2013). However, it is rare that negative interactions between humans and wildlife results in human death, but when such things happen it attracts media coverage and political agendas can escalate, to increase public perception of wildlife and negatively impact on environmental conservation efforts (Conover 2001, Evensen 2008; Decker et al. 2010; Degeling and kerridge 2013). The zoonotic disease Rabies is a dangerous, viral disease which remains an important issue for human health and wildlife management worldwide (Sterner and Smith 2006). There is no cure but completely preventable by vaccination. It is transmitted by bite of an infected dog to susceptible host (any mammal). The disease is now less than 300 kilometres from Australia’s mainland (Sparkes et al. 2014). This article will convey ramifications to industry, government and community in different affairs likely economic, environmental and social impacts on national and international level if the disease become established. And also suggest some possible solution to mitigate the problem.
Discussion:
If the outbreak happens and the disease becomes established there will be a great loss to each and every field. Unluckily, Australian communities do not have enough understanding about the implications about rabies outbreak and its potential effects on wildlife, domestic animals and themselves. They may quickly escalate to fear. The following aspects will be affected to a great extent.
Threats to different fields:
Economic: There will be great loss to the economy, beyond impacts on wildlife from shifts in public attitudes, if rabies enters Australia there is potential for significant impacts on the tourism industry. In 2012, ecotourism (including visiting National Parks, bush walking and visiting wildlife parks) contributed $4 billion to the Australian economy (Department of National Parks, Recreation, Sport and Racing 2013). Conservation of ecosystems, including native wildlife, are promoted and supported as a result of ecotourism, through financial support and education of tourists (Buckley 2010; Feck and Hamann 2013). The Australian ecotourism hotspot; Fraser Island, attracts approximately 400,000 tourists annually (Ecosure 2012), with the majority of visitors expecting some form of interaction with dingoes (Burns and Howard 2003). Already, despite efforts from National Park rangers, negative interactions do occur between humans and dingoes and this has led to the destruction of these animals at tourist ‘hot spots’ (Environmental Protection Agency 2001). The destruction of dingoes in these circumstances has led to public outcry and negative media attention (Burns and Howard 2003). Such evidences from different departments and authors estimates the loss to the economy. As well as if the outbreak happens there will be a need of vaccinations and treatments which will incur lumpsums of money to be invested. In addition to the vaccination of wildlife and domestic animals, significant costs are also associated with post- exposure-prophylaxis (PEP) of exposed humans to the disease. The direct costs of human PEP treatment had been estimated at between AUD$2,658 and $2,868 per exposed person in the US (Kreindel et al. 1998; Shwiff et al. 2007; Vaidya et al. 2010). As rabies is a Category 1 disease in Australia (Willis 2013), the costs associated with PEP treatment will likely fall with the Government’s healthcare system.
Environmental threats: There are several environmental of the disease outbreak. When a disease becomes established many researches are conducted to overcome and eradicate it. These efforts has a great impact on wildlife and nature. On international basis, Recently, a new and more limited use of vaccination for disease management has been proposed. In this management method, originally suggested to control rabies in African wild dogs, a small number of individuals are vaccinated prophylactically (creating a population with a “vaccinated core”) to minimize the probability of extinction from epizootics, rather than to prevent disease outbreaks altogether (Cleaveland et al.2006; Vial et al.2006). In the event of some future epizootic, individuals in the vaccinated core survive and serve as founders to rebuild the population. Because the goal is not complete prevention of epizootics, maintaining immunity in the majority of the population is not imperative, which greatly increases the feasibility of this approach for wild populations. This management systems and model may affect the wildlife and cause extinction of species in order to find proper vaccines.
Social impacts:
To date, no effective therapy to cure patients who have developed clinical symptoms has been established (Jackson, 2013a) and recovery after treatment of clinical rabies occurs only in very rare cases, usually with permanent severe neurological damage (Madhusudana et al., 2002, Willoughby et al., 2005). The administration of immediate post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) – consisting of bite wound cleansing and injection of rabies vaccine and immunoglobulins – after exposure to rabies can prevent the onset of the disease (WHO, 2013). More than 15 million people require PEP annually (WHO, 2013). The human rabies mortality is estimated to be 7 per million per year in N’Djamena, the capital of Chad, alone (Frey et al., 2013). This information that no cure is available for rabies makes a common social fear of stray dogs and infected domestic dogs as well. But in a case study from Rabies awareness and dog ownership among rural northern and southern Chadian communities-Analysis of a community-based, cross-sectional household survey. It reveals that
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In 2012 a parenteral dog mass vaccination campaign covering the whole town of N’Djamena was conducted and repeated in 2013. Both interventions reached a coverage of over >70% (Léchenne et al., 2016), exceeding the WHO-recommended required immunization coverage to interrupt the transmission cycle of the rabies virus (Coleman and Dye, 1996). The interventions led to a reduction of dog rabies cases of over 90% (from 19 cases in 2012 to 2 cases in 2013) and are proof of the feasibility of dog vaccination in the region. Due to lack of knowledge among people it makes the situation worse.
On national and international level there are number of ways to mitigate the problem:
An option proposed by Australian government authorities for the control of a rabies outbreak is to strengthen domestic animal management through ‘seizing, and detaining or destroying animals not properly controlled or vaccinated’ (Animal Health Australia 2011). Banks (1992) further recommended that animals wearing a tag (correctly licensed and vaccinated) should be kept in confinement for a fixed period of time, while animals not wearing correct identification should be euthanized when captured, dismissing any notion of potential rehoming through a rescue organisation.
Educating people about Rabies
Even in countries where rabies is endemic, community members can lack vital knowledge on rabies transmission and prevention (Bingham et al. 2010; Dzikwi et al. 2012; Rumana et al. 2013). For example, in Texas, USA, 98% of respondents (n=922) to a household survey had heard of rabies, but only 59% knew that exposure to rabies without treatment could lead to death (Bingham et al. 2010). Similarly, Matibag et al. (2007) found that 90% of respondents (n=1570) knew that dogs were the most common reservoir of rabies in Sri Lanka, but only 79% knew rabies is fatal.
This lack of knowledge, combined with limited medical facilities in many regions (Warrell et al. 2007), contributes to the number of untreated rabies cases, with dire consequences. Annually, more than 55,000 people die from rabies (Knobel et al. 2005), with most of those deaths occurring in Asia and Africa (Warrell et al. 2007).
To reduce human deaths from rabies, education programs have been recommended in many countries (Vanak et al. 2007; Bingham et al. 2010; Burgos- Caceres 2011; Lapiz et al. 2012). In the Philippines, a rabies prevention and elimination project initiated in 2007, including an educational component to raise awareness of the disease (Lapiz et al. 2012).
The One Health Initiative emphasizes the importance of animal and environmental health in achieving optimal human health (Gebreyes et al., 2014).
Conclusions:
At the end it can be concluded that if the outbreak happens as it is mentioned that rabies is 300 kilometres away from Australia, it is likely to cause fear in the short term and it is expected to effect negatively on people’s attitude towards wildlife. There are chances that support of people for conservational efforts, changes to nature and frequency of human interaction with domestic animals may reduce. To mitigate the disease if the outbreak starts, the present relaxed attitude of Australian’s in regards with domestic animal management will be highly in demand. Achieving information and enough knowledge is an important factor to raise awareness and prevention in human population in this endemic.
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