WHY IS THERE STILL RABIES IN NIGERIA?- A REVIEW OF THE CURRENT AND FUTURE TRENDS IN THE EPIDEMIOLOGY, PREVENTION, TREATMENT, CONTROL AND ELIMIATION

This study reports on why is there still rabies in Nigeria? Rabies is one of the most typical zoonosis that has been well known since ancient ages. Rabies is endemic in Nigeria and remains an important public health issue in Nigeria, West Africa. It is the most important typical and zoonotic disease in the country. Public concern and fears are most focused on dogs as the source of rabies. Rabies is an acute infectious viral disease that attacks the nervous system, leaving victims suffering from convulsions, paralysis, excessive salivation and an aversion to water. There have been fewer than five known cases where recovery has occurred. Rabies kills an estimated 35,000 per year, mostly in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Its occurrence in man and domestic animals is well known but the importance of wild animals in its spread has not been determined. To date, no effective medical therapy has been established for overt rabies. Preventive vaccination against rabies virus is a highly effective method for preventing rabies in humans and animals. The rabies post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), which is a serial vaccination against rabies starting as soon as possible after the patient was bitten by a suspected rabid animal, is the only way to prevent death. In Nigeria where dog bites continue to be the main mode of transmission of the disease to man, it remains a serious public health hazard. Despite proper vaccination some animals do not reach the threshold. Contributing factors include human factors through increased human activities, attitudes, and error; socioeconomic factors through major ecologic, environmental and anthropogenic changes of the biosphere, changes in agricultural practices, poverty, hunting with dogs, and increasing demands for meat; animal factors (through animal importation, host population increase, migration of dogs, migration of stray animals, frequency of consumption of animal brain); and vaccines and vaccination factors (low vaccination coverage by increasing nonimmune population and factor contributing to vaccine failures) and other vaccine related problem. Therefore, the need for detailed epidemiological studies in Nigeria together with surveillance, control, the vaccination of human and animals, and accurate data collection and adequate reporting is emphasized.