India ranks top in rabies deaths in Asia

Bangalore, Mar 3 (UNI) India has the dubious distinction of ranking top in rabies deaths among the Asian countries, with over 20,000 deaths reported every year, Dr F X Meslin of the World Health Organisation (WHO) said today.

Delivering a lecture on 'Rabies in Asia: Current Scene and WHO's Role in Control' at the scientific session of the first annual conference of Rabies in Asia (RIA) RIACON-2007 here, he said that according to a WHO study, more than two billion people in the Asian continent were potentially exposed to rabies. An estimated number of 31,000 rabies deaths representing 56 per cent of the world mortality at 55,000 was reported from Asia. About 80 per cent of the people who succumbed to rabies were living in rural areas and most of them were children and adult male, he added.

Dr Meslin said that thanks to increased awareness, the Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) intervention had increased markedly and PEP provided in China was almost eight million. The size of the potential market for these products was expected to be ten to 20 million by 2010. The usage of PEP in India had also changed, with the drastic increase of modern vaccines - both locally produced and imported.

Another trend witnessed in Asia was switching from brain tissue vaccines to the use of indigenous or imported cell cultured or embryonated egg rabies vaccine. However, in countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Vietnam, the application of brain tissue vacancies was still in vogue. India and China have developed or acquired the cell-culture embryonated egg rabies vaccine production technology in a sustainable manner, he said.

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