Veterinary Archives, Vol. 72 No. 3, 2002.
Original scientific paper
Animal rabies and post-exposure rabies treatment of humans in Slovenia.
Mirjana Stantić-Pavlinić
; Institute of Public Health of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Peter Hostnik
; Institute for Microbiology, Veterinary Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Abstract
Over the last decade cases of rabies in animals in Central Europe have decreased. The objective of this study was to analyse the influence of the changing number of laboratory confirmed rabies in animals on post-exposure rabies treatment (PET) of humans in the Republic of Slovenia. This article presents data on the number of PET patients during the period 1992-2001. In the first five years of observation, the ratio between treated patients and laboratory confirmed rabid animals was 1.0 to 3.6 respectively. Over subsequent years this ratio gradually changed to 116.2, falling to 6.3 in 2001. The main carrier of rabies in Slovenia was the red fox, but people were treated for rabies mostly because of being bitten by a dog whose owner was unknown. There was an association between PET patients and animal rabies (correlation coefficient r = 0.77; r2 0.59; 95% confidence limits -0.07 < r2 <0.89). The average number of PET patients was 40.2 per 100,000 inhabitants/year (minimum 30.3, maximum 52.0, sd 6.3) and did not change as significantly as did the number of rabid animals in the same time period. Because of existence of a huge reservoir of rabies virus in animals almost all over the world, local focuses, migration of animals and travellers, bites from animals with unknown owners, and some possibility of importing rabies by pets and other animals, it is difficult to satisfy the need for post-exposure rabies treatment of humans in those regions where rabies in animals are in decline.
Keywords
rabies; post-exposure treatment; oral vaccination
Hrčak ID:
79899
URI
Publication date:
21.6.2002.
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