U.S. is now free of canine rabies virus

[~flower~]

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2007-09-07T102632Z_01_N07411620_RTRUKOC_0_US-RABIES-USA.xml


U.S. is now free of canine rabies virus
Fri Sep 7, 2007 6:26 AM ET

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal health experts declared a small victory against a fatal and untreatable virus on Friday, saying canine rabies has disappeared from the United States.

While dogs may still become infected from raccoons, skunks or bats, they will not catch dog-specific rabies from another dog, the Atlanta-based U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

"We don't want to misconstrue that rabies has been eliminated -- dog rabies virus has been," CDC rabies expert Dr. Charles Rupprecht told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Rabies evolves to match the animals it infects, and the strain most specific to dogs has not been seen anywhere in the United States since 2004, Rupprecht said.

While the incubation period for rabies is as long as six years in humans, it is only six months in a dog.

"Even though we still live in a sea of rabies and even though we have rabies viruses circulating among raccoons and foxes and bats, the dog rabies virus, which is the most responsible for dog-to-dog transmission and which is still the greatest burden to humans ... it is that virus that has been eliminated."

Rabies kills 55,000 people a year globally, according to the World Health Organization. It is easily prevented with a vaccine, but many people do not realize they have been infected and once symptoms begin to show, it is almost impossible to treat.

Only one person -- a Wisconsin girl who was put into an intentional coma in 2004 -- has ever been known to have survived rabies infection.

Rupprecht said attempts to treat three victims in the United States and one in Canada have failed. The victims all died.

The virus can infect virtually all mammals, but like most viruses it evolves and can be "typed" genetically. Species-specific strains are well characterized for bats, raccoons and skunks for instance, as well as for dogs.

"A dog rabies is very different from a skunk rabies virus," Rupprecht said.

While cats are susceptible, Rupprecht said there is not a known rabies strain specific to domestic cats.

Mandatory vaccination has created what is known as herd immunity in U.S. dogs, Rupprecht said, and it will be vital to continue this to protect dogs -- and people -- from the virus.

"The elimination of canine rabies in the United States represents one of the major public health success stories in the last 50 years," CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said in a statement.

"However, there is still much work to be done to prevent and control rabies globally."

Canine rabies is still very common in many countries, including much of Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, India, China, the Philippines and elsewhere.

Some island nations such as Japan, New Zealand, Barbados, Fiji, Maldives, and Seychelles are rabies-free.

Greece, Portugal, Norway, Sweden, Uruguay and Chile are also free of rabies.

[Vet]

That report is SOOOO misleading

[~flower~]

That report is SOOOO misleading

  Should I really have to ask you to expand on that statement?   

 (you know how it works, either you or I post something and the other one comes back with something else, usually a counter to the other's post  )


  It doesn't say that rabies is not out there, just there hasn't been any canine rabies documented since 2004.  Nor does it say people should stop vaccinating their dogs for rabies because they could still get it from a raccoon or a skunk. 

I thought I read that rabies is found in more species now when we started vaccinating (late 1970's was when it became required. The brain child of 2 vets that saw it as a money maker and started the great rabies fear, I believe I have something on that somewhere) for it and using bait drops in wildlife later on?  That WE actually made it cross species?

[Vet]

  Should I really have to ask you to expand on that statement?   

 (you know how it works, either you or I post something and the other one comes back with something else, usually a counter to the other's post  )


  It doesn't say that rabies is not out there, just there hasn't been any canine rabies documented since 2004.  Nor does it say people should stop vaccinating their dogs for rabies because they could still get it from a raccoon or a skunk. 

I thought I read that rabies is found in more species now when we started vaccinating (late 1970's was when it became required. The brain child of 2 vets that saw it as a money maker and started the great rabies fear, I believe I have something on that somewhere) for it and using bait drops in wildlife later on?  That WE actually made it cross species?

I've never heard that humans had anything to do with rabies crossing the species.... the thing is the virus that causes rabies can freely cross between all mammalian species and has been reported in most groups of animals from guinea pigs (2 cases I can think of off the top of my head) to dogs to cats to horses to elephants.  The name "dog" rabies or "skunk" rabies really has nothign to do with how the disease is transmitted from species to species and how freely it moves from mammal to mammal.  The name has to do with the specific strains most commonly identified carrier species.   In the US, "canine" rabies has never been a problem.   Rabies in the US is most common in raccoons (the eastern epidemic that has been ongoing since the 1970's) and skunks (the midwest).  "Bat" rabies is there and there have been recent cases in humans, but the cases in other species is less than raccoon or skunk. 

As a veterinarian I've seen 2 cases of rabies.   They both scared the living shit out of me.  They scared me more than any other disease I've seen in any species.  I'll take on a cobra or any other agressive, highly dangerous animal anyday (which I've done and do every day) vs dealing with a beagle with rabies.  I euthanized the one dog by hand----via the only intracardiac euthanasia injection I've ever given without premedicating the animal.  Rabies is a brutal, scary, scary disease in its furious form. 


Thats why i said that article is misleading....  Like I said above, in the US, "raccoon" rabies far outweighs "canine" and its still a very real major, major threat.  "Canine" rabies is something you pretty much only find in countries with a very high stray dog population---something the US by and large doesn't have, thus making the disease not that common. 



Ok, now its your turn flower.   

[knny187]

As a veterinarian I've seen 2 cases of rabies.   They both scared the living shit out of me.  They scared me more than any other disease I've seen in any species.  I'll take on a cobra or any other agressive, highly dangerous animal anyday (which I've done and do every day) vs dealing with a beagle with rabies.  I euthanized the one dog by hand----via the only intracardiac euthanasia injection I've ever given without premedicating the animal.  Rabies is a brutal, scary, scary disease in its furious form. 

that must of been one scary guinea pig

[~flower~]

Ok, now its your turn flower.   

   


  I didn't think rabies was common at all in skunks or opossums for instance, until we started using live bait, that is what I meant by man helping it cross to another species.  Species that were not known to get rabies started too.  In essence we made rabies a bigger threat than it was by our intervention.    Seems to be the common theme with man and nature, we are constantly trying to fix our mistakes.     

[Vet]

   


  I didn't think rabies was common at all in skunks or opossums for instance, until we started using live bait, that is what I meant by man helping it cross to another species.  Species that were not known to get rabies started too.  In essence we made rabies a bigger threat than it was by our intervention.    Seems to be the common theme with man and nature, we are constantly trying to fix our mistakes.     

Its not common in opossums.   If I remember right, opossums are one of the species with a "natural resistance" to the virus---meaning the natural incidence in that species is really, really low.   Id' have to look that up to be certian though.

Personally, I've always wondered if there isn't a correlation between the 'possums increadibly small brains and any sort of resistance, but who knows.   

[Vet]

that must of been one scary guinea pig

The one case was written up in JAVMA.  This is the basic summary from the 2003 New York State rabies report:

The rabid guinea pig is an unusually rare occurrence. The guinea pig was a pet of a resident of Madison County. While being allowed to exercise in a backyard during daylight hours the rodent was attacked by a raccoon. The owner heard the pet squeal and as she approached, the raccoon ran off. There were no visible wounds on the pet. Twenty six days later the owner was bitten on the clavicle while holding the pet. Because rabies was originally not suspected, an additional eight days elapsed before the pet was euthanized and submitted for testing. The positive diagnosis was confirmed by isolation of the virus in cell culture and antigenic typing. The variant was identified as the raccoon strain of rabies virus. Further analysis of the distribution of rabies virus in the organs of the guinea pig revealed extensive proliferation of the virus into many areas of the body, including the salivary glands. The owner received rabies prophylaxis.

In one of those guinea pig cases, there were several humans who ultimately required prophylaxis treatment.   

[WOOO]

that must of been one scary guinea pig

could you immagine a rabid elephant   

 

[Vet]

could you immagine a rabid elephant   

 

The Asian elephant had more of the "dumb form" of the disease not the "furious form" that I've encountered and that we think about.  She was a very old Asian Elephant female that became aggressive, restless, and unsteady on her feet.   Within something like 7 days of first showing clinical signs she had a lame trunk and was falling down to the point of essentially being unable to walk.  She died something like 8 or 9 days after the first clnical signs were noted.   


This was the elephant that led to the big push for killed rabies virus vaccinations in elephants and establishment of the protocols for vaccinations in all captive elephants with close human contact.  Id hate to think of what a 13,000 lb African bull could do if it ever got the "furious" form of the disease.  They are bad enough in musth.   Rabies would be a whole different ballgame. 

[Vet]

Its kind of strange to me that we are talking about rabies on here and I'm at my house right now pulling my hair out because I've got to finish this bullshit article about strange presentations of the disease.... i'm focusing on the supposed tie in to a rabies outbreak and the legends of the vampires.   I've got a head ache. 

[~flower~]

Vampire dog    :

 http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007410356,00.html

[~flower~]

Canine rabies wiped out, experts say

By CRAIG SCHNEIDER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/06/07

The canine rabies virus has been eliminated in the United States, federal health experts are expected to announce at a conference Friday in Atlanta.

"We now know that this virus does not circulate either in Canada or the U.S.," said Dr. Charles Rupprecht, chief of the rabies program at the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "It's not here anymore."

He said the elimination nationally of the strain of the virus specific to dogs is considered a "major public health milestone." The canine strain was once the greatest threat of rabies to humans. Without immediate treatment, the virus kills almost all of its victims.

There has not been a confirmed case of the canine rabies virus in the United States for more than two years, Rupprecht said.

Other strains of rabies still exist, and scientists said pet owners should still vaccinate their dogs, because a dog can get a different rabies virus from other infected animals, such as skunks or raccoons.

In theory, infected dogs could transmit that rabies virus to humans through bites, but scientists have not seen such a case since the early 1990s. The elimination of the canine variety of rabies virus has greatly reduced the number of deaths in the nation from rabies in general.

The announcement will highlight the World Rabies Day Symposium and Expo at the CDC. Scientists attributed the achievement to aggressive vaccination of dogs and better public health education about rabies.

Around the world, rabies kills an estimated 55,000 people a year, and the major cause is the canine strain of rabies, said Dr. Cathleen Hanlon, director of the rabies lab at Kansas State University and director of the Global Alliance for Rabies Control.

[Vet]

Canine rabies wiped out, experts say

By CRAIG SCHNEIDER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/06/07

The canine rabies virus has been eliminated in the United States, federal health experts are expected to announce at a conference Friday in Atlanta.

"We now know that this virus does not circulate either in Canada or the U.S.," said Dr. Charles Rupprecht, chief of the rabies program at the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "It's not here anymore."

He said the elimination nationally of the strain of the virus specific to dogs is considered a "major public health milestone." The canine strain was once the greatest threat of rabies to humans. Without immediate treatment, the virus kills almost all of its victims.

There has not been a confirmed case of the canine rabies virus in the United States for more than two years, Rupprecht said.

Other strains of rabies still exist, and scientists said pet owners should still vaccinate their dogs, because a dog can get a different rabies virus from other infected animals, such as skunks or raccoons.

In theory, infected dogs could transmit that rabies virus to humans through bites, but scientists have not seen such a case since the early 1990s. The elimination of the canine variety of rabies virus has greatly reduced the number of deaths in the nation from rabies in general.

The announcement will highlight the World Rabies Day Symposium and Expo at the CDC. Scientists attributed the achievement to aggressive vaccination of dogs and better public health education about rabies.

Around the world, rabies kills an estimated 55,000 people a year, and the major cause is the canine strain of rabies, said Dr. Cathleen Hanlon, director of the rabies lab at Kansas State University and director of the Global Alliance for Rabies Control.

I still think these reports are borderline misleading. 


Heres some epidemiological information that some of you might find interesting:

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rabies/Epidemiology/Epidemiology.htm

[~flower~]

I still think these reports are borderline misleading. 

Heres some epidemiological information that some of you might find interesting:

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rabies/Epidemiology/Epidemiology.htm

I think it is pretty clear that they are saying CANINE rabies and going on to mention that in other species it is still there and a threat. 

[~flower~]

Support the Rabies Challenge Fund!!! *


***I just donated $50    


(UPDATE: They met the first year req'd amount, donations are still needed to pay for all the years of the study, every little bit helps and is TAX DEDCUCTABLE!!)

 Morgan is doing all she can to protect her two dogs from overvaccination. “I have a vet who does titer testing instead of giving shots every year,” she says. “My dogs are five years old now, and the tests show they’re still being protected by the vaccines they had when they were pups.” But it’s a different story when it comes to rabies. Morgan lives in a state where rabies shots are required annually, so her vet is obligated to vaccinate her dogs every year, regardless of whether or not they might still be protected by earlier inoculations.

Teresa, meanwhile, is an apartment-dweller whose cat died after suffering an adverse reaction from a rabies vaccine. “I don’t know why I had to get him vaccinated so often when we’re seven floors up and he never went out,” she says. “The chances of him ever coming into contact with a rabid animal were pretty small.”

Serious side effects
It’s a dilemma common to animal lovers across the U.S. and Canada. Some regions still require annual rabies vaccines, while many others now allow the three-year variety, but even that’s too frequent when you consider the negative side effects of overvaccination. “Rabies is the vaccine most associated with adverse reactions because it’s so potent,” says renowned veterinarian Dr. Jean Dodds. “We have a lot of bad reactions, including fatal ones. They usually occur within two to three weeks after vaccination, although they can appear up to 45 days later. Because the rabies vaccine is a neurogenic protein, meaning it affects the nervous system, what you will often see is seizures or seizure-like disorders like stumbling, ataxia, dementia, and some demyelination, where the animals become wobbly and don’t have proper motor skills. You can also have an autoimmune-like destruction of tissues, skin, blood, joints, the liver or kidneys.” Dr. Dodds adds that animals already ill with immune-related diseases such as cancer can be even more negatively affected. “Often, this is the last thing that causes the animal’s demise.”

Despite all this, federal law still demands that companion animals be regularly vaccinated against rabies, even if you keep your animals indoors or live in an area where rabies is unlikely to be a major problem. The main reason is that rabies can afflict humans as well as dogs and cats. “Rabies is fatal to all mammals,” says Dr. Dodds. “This is an issue to protect the public health, not the animals. The primary goal of the law is to protect people from rabies.”

While there’s no denying that rabies is a serious disease, and that both humans and animals need protection from it, the question remains: why subject dogs and cats to the potentially serious side effects of the vaccination on an annual or even a triennial basis, when the duration of immunity (DOI) is probably much longer?

The need for new legislation
It’s a question that Dr. Dodds and several other professionals asked themselves when they started The Rabies Challenge Fund in the fall of 2005. “From challenge trials, we know the DOI for regular vaccines is seven to nine years, if not longer. So why would the rabies vaccines, being so potent, not have an even longer DOI? We decided the thing to do would be to design a study to federal government standards that would determine if the DOI is longer than three years.” Challenge studies in France have demonstrated that the rabies vaccine has a DOI of at least five years, but this information is not accepted by federal and state legislatures in the U.S., hence the need for a domestic study.

The Rabies Challenge Fund is a nation-wide effort. Along with Dr. Dodds, who is based in California, the study involves Dr. Ron Schultz of the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Wisconsin, and vaccine disclosure activist Kris Christine, who lives in the northeast and has already worked with Dr. Dodds on other vaccine-related issues in that region. “We asked Dr. Schultz to do the study and he was delighted,” says Dr. Dodds. The group was even more delighted when the University of Wisconsin agreed to cover almost half the cost of overhead for the study. “It shows they believe very strongly that this is information we need.”

How will the study work?
Dr. Dodds and her colleagues officially registered The Rabies Challenge Fund in December of last year. Since then, they have been working diligently to raise the money needed to fund the actual study, which will involve two separate groups of 20 dogs each, one to be studied for five years’ DOI, and the other for seven. “We’ll do the two groups in parallel, and continue 20 of the five-year dogs to seven years.” By monitoring the animals’ antibodies and other benchmarks, Dr. Schultz will be able to determine the DOI for the rabies vaccine over these periods, thereby showing that the initial vaccines given to puppies and kittens before they’re a year old remain fully effective for many years, perhaps even for life. The fund will also finance a study of the adjuvants used in rabies vaccines and establish an adverse reaction reporting system.

But more money is needed before work can start. “We require $177,000 in the first year,” says Dr. Dodds. “So far, we have $65,000, so we’re still short of our goal. We also have some pledges that will become active once we achieve 60% of the amount we need. And we’ve had some substantial donations from Canada, even though what we do might not be accepted there. People still felt compelled to donate.”

One of the unique things about The Rabies Challenge Fund is that it’s being funded by animal guardians and others who feel passionate about this issue. “Kris and Ron and I want this to be a grassroots program,” says Dr. Dodds. “We know a company could come in and give us a whole bunch of money to do the study, but it’s nice to know that the project started and evolved from people in the grassroots."

Donations may be sent to The Rabies Challenge Fund Charitable Trust, c/o Hemopet, 11330 Markon Drive, Garden Grove, CA 92841. Or contact Dr. Jean Dodds at Hemopet@hotmail.com or Kris Christine at LedgeSpring@Lincoln.midcoast.com. All donations are tax deductible in the U.S. www.rabieschallengefund. org



Killed vaccines like those for rabies virus can trigger immediate and delayed adverse vaccine reactions (termed "vaccinosis")  While there may be immediate hypersensitivity reactions, other acute events tend to occur 24-72 hours afterwards, or up to 45 days later in the case of delayed reactions. Reactions that have been documented include:

    * Behavior changes such as aggression and separation anxiety
    * Obsessive behavior,self-mutilation, tail chewing       
    * Pica - eating wood, stones, earth, stool
    * Destructive behavior, shredding bedding
    * Seizures, epilepsy
    * Fibrosarcomas at injection site
    * Autoimmune diseases such as those affecting bone marrow and blood cells, joints, eyes, skin, kidney, liver, bowel, and        central nervous system.
    * Muscular weakness and or atrophy
    * Chronic digestive problems