World Rabies Day

Greetings from Heartwood Animal Hospital. Today’s blog will be in honor of World Rabies day, which is September 28th. Rabies is still a very serious disease in today’s world, with 55,000 human deaths resulting from rabies every year. During my 6 weeks in India, it was very common to see multiple animals at a time in the Rabies Isolation Ward at the local veterinary college. It is a heartbreaking disease to witness in person, and my heart truly goes out to doctors around the globe that have seen cases of Rabies in humans. In the United States, there are approximately 6,000 cases in animals every year! The majority of cases in America are in wildlife. Raccoons, bats, and skunks make up close to 85% of the rabies cases in the USA each year. However, in the year of 2014, there were 59 confirmed cases of Rabies in dogs and 272 in cats. This number in dogs and cats should be zero if the right actions are taken as this is a completely preventable disease with proper vaccinations. World Rabies day is meant to spread public awareness of this disease and the public health impact of Rabies. For more information on the Rabies virus and how veterinarians play a crucial role in public health, please watch this brief youtube video: