“During the next 10 minutes, at least one person will die from rabies,” warned the Global Alliance for Rabies Control (GARC), in celebration of the World Rabies Day on 28 September 2015.

Rabies is a viral disease transmitted through bite, scratches or saliva of an infected mammal. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that more than 99% of human cases are caused by domestic dogs.

Rabies can be in furious or paralytic form. WHO stated that victims with furious rabies exhibit hyperactivity, excited behavior, and hydrophobia (fear of water), followed by death through cardiac arrest. People with paralytic rabies, on the other hand, experience muscle paralysis to coma and death.

As an initiative to decrease the 59,000 annual human deaths caused by rabies, GARC, together with Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and WHO, coordinates the World Rabies Day.

The celebration aims to raise awareness that rabies is preventable. GARC stressed the importance of animal vaccination as a cheaper way to prevent the disease. As for treatment, the Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) is effective yet costly wherein measures include immediate local treatment of wound, vaccination and administration of rabies immunoglobulin.

In the Philippines, World Rabies Day was celebrated in conjunction with the Animal Welfare Week of the Department of Agriculture Bureau of Animal Industry (DA BAI). Among the events held were declaration of rabies-free zones, conduct of mass dog vaccination, dog walk and pet blessing at the Quezon Memorial Circle. [Read more: http://www.philstar.com/nation/2015/09/19/1501619/dilg-calls-lgus-support-world-rabies-day]

“World Rabies Day marks the death anniversary [of the death] of Louis Pasteur, a French chemist who successfully trialed the first rabies vaccine. [On] This year’s World Rabies Day, we want to send a clear message to national governments that if we work together, we have the chance to make rabies history,” stated Dr. Louise Taylor, GARC Spokesperson.

GARC is a non-profit organization whose mission is to “prevent human deaths from rabies and relieve the burden of rabies in other animal populations.” For more information about the World Rabies Day, visit their website at www.rabiesalliance.org. You can also check http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs099/en/ to know more about the disease.