Management of rabies

  • Jacqueline Weyer National Institute for Communicable Diseases
  • Lucille Blumberg National Institute for Communicable Diseases
Keywords: Rabies, human rabies, rabies vaccination, post-exposure prophylaxis

Abstract

Rabies is endemic in South Africa and human rabies cases continue to be reported annually. Most human cases in South Africa are dog-transmitted. Whilst efforts are underway to control and eventually eliminate dog rabies in the country, prevention of the disease through appropriate use of rabies postexposure prophylaxis is critical to save lives. This article provides a summary of rabies in South Africa and key aspects of the prevention of the disease in exposed humans.

Author Biographies

Jacqueline Weyer, National Institute for Communicable Diseases

Centre for Emerging Zoonotic and Parasitic Diseases, National Institute for Communicable Diseases of the National Health Laboratory Service, South Africa and Centre for Viral Zoonoses, Department of Medical Virology, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Lucille Blumberg, National Institute for Communicable Diseases

Centre for Emerging Zoonotic and Parasitic Diseases, National Institute for Communicable Diseases of the National Health Laboratory Service, South Africa

Published
2019-07-02
Issue
Vol 61 No 3: May/June 2019
Section
Review Articles
By submitting manuscripts to SAFP, authors of original articles are assigning copyright to the South African Academy of Family Physicians. Copyright of review articles are assigned to the Publisher, Medpharm Publications (Pty) Ltd, unless otherwise specified. Authors may use their own work after publication without written permission, provided they acknowledge the original source. Individuals and academic institutions may freely copy and distribute articles published in SAFP for educational and research purposes without obtaining permission.