Bolstering human rabies surveillance in Africa is crucial to eliminating canine-mediated rabies

Broban, Anaïs; Tejiokem, Mathurin Cyrille; Tiembré, I.; Druelles, Sophie; L’Azou, Maïna

doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0006367

Cited by 21 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Surveillance capacity in both the animal and human health sectors is limited and disease detection is hampered by inadequate laboratory facilities and difficulties in submitting samples to laboratories from rural areas (7,12,13). These limitations also render national epidemiological data unreliable with substantial underreporting of both human and animal rabies cases (14) and underestimation of the mortality burden of rabies and its economic impact (15,16). This leads to rabies control not being prioritized by decision makers against other competing public health concerns.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

One Health in Practice: Using Integrated Bite Case Management to Increase Detection of Rabid Animals in Tanzania

Lushasi

Steenson

Bernard

et al. 2020

Front. Public Health

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

One Health in Practice: Using Integrated Bite Case Management to Increase Detection of Rabid Animals in Tanzania

Lushasi

Steenson

Bernard

et al. 2020

Front. Public Health

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“…Even though the most cost-efficient and high impact intervention to prevent, control, and eliminate canine rabies is mass dog vaccination ( 8 , 9 ), surveillance is also a vital component of rabies control programs ( 11 – 13 ). In Latin America, since 1983, rabies control programs have included intense surveillance ( 3 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Rabies Reemergence in Latin America: the case of Arequipa, Peru

Raynor

Díaz

Shinnick

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Over the past decades, there has been tremendous progress towards eliminating canine rabies in Latin America. Major components of rabies prevention programs in Latin America leading to these successes have been constant and intense surveillance for rabid dogs and uninterrupted yearly mass dog vaccination campaigns. However, vital measures to control COVID-19 in Latin America have had the negative trade-off of jeopardizing these rabies elimination and prevention activities. In this paper, we aimed to assess the effect of interrupting canine rabies surveillance and mass dog vaccination campaigns on rabies trends. We built a deterministic compartment model of dog rabies dynamics parameterized for conditions found in Arequipa, Peru, where there is an ongoing dog rabies epidemic. Our model suggests that a decrease in canine vaccination coverage as well as decreased surveillance leading to an increased length of survival of infected dogs could lead to a sharp rise in canine rabies and, subsequently, human rabies risk. We examined our results over the best estimate of the basic reproductive number in Arequipa (R0 = 1.44) and a range of plausible values for R0 (1.36 - 2). The rising trend was consistent. It is very possible that COVID-19 will continue to challenge our public health departments in the short- and medium-term. Innovative strategies to conduct dog vaccination and rabies surveillance during these trying times should be considered to safeguard the achievements made in Latin America towards the elimination of dog-mediated human rabies. Resumen (Abstract in Spanish) En las últimas décadas ha habido un tremendo progreso hacia la eliminación de la rabia canina en América Latina. Los principales componentes de los programas de prevención de la rabia en América Latina que condujeron a estos éxitos han sido la vigilancia constante e intensa de los perros con rabia y las campañas anuales de vacunación masiva ininterrumpida. Sin embargo, las medidas esenciales para controlar el COVID-19 en América Latina han tenido el balance negativo de poner en peligro estas actividades de prevención y eliminación de rabia. En este artículo, nuestro objetivo fue evaluar el efecto que la interrupción de la vigilancia de la rabia canina y las campañas de vacunación masiva de perros tendría en las tendencias de la rabia. Modelamos la dinámica de la rabia canina mediante un modelo determinístico de comportamientos parametrizado para las condiciones que se encuentran en Arequipa, Perú, donde hay una epidemia de rabia canina en curso. Nuestro modelo sugiere que una disminución en la cobertura de vacunación canina, así como una disminución en la vigilancia (que llevaría a una mayor supervivencia de los perros infectados), podría llevar a un aumento súbito de rabia canina y, seguidamente, del riesgo de rabia humana. Examinamos nuestros resultados sobre la mejor estimación del número reproductivo básico en Arequipa (R0 = 1.44) y un rango de valores plausibles para R0 (1.36 - 2). La tendencia al alza fue consistente. Es muy posible que el COVID-19 continúe desafiando a nuestros departamentos de salud pública a corto y mediano plazo. Por lo tanto, deben considerarse estrategias innovadoras para llevar a cabo la vacunación de perros y la vigilancia de la rabia durante estos tiempos difíciles para salvaguardar los logros alcanzados en América Latina hacia la eliminación de la rabia humana mediada por perros.

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“…Canine rabies elimination is feasible through sustained well-implemented mass dog vaccination programmes (Abela-Ridder et al, 2016;Lankester et al, 2014;WHO, 2018b). A global initiative to end human deaths from dog-mediated rabies by 2030 is now underway (WHO, 2018b) and practical, effective surveillance tools are required to support this campaign (Benavides et al, 2019;Bitek et al, 2019;Broban et al, 2018;Hampson et al, 2016;Mtema et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rapid in-country sequencing of whole virus genomes to inform rabies elimination programmes

et al. 2020

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Genomic surveillance is an important aspect of contemporary disease management but has yet to be used routinely to monitor endemic disease transmission and control in low- and middle-income countries. Rabies is an almost invariably fatal viral disease that causes a large public health and economic burden in Asia and Africa, despite being entirely vaccine preventable. With policy efforts now directed towards achieving a global goal of zero dog-mediated human rabies deaths by 2030, establishing effective surveillance tools is critical. Genomic data can provide important and unique insights into rabies spread and persistence that can direct control efforts. However, capacity for genomic research in low- and middle-income countries is held back by limited laboratory infrastructure, cost, supply chains and other logistical challenges. Here we present and validate an end-to-end workflow to facilitate affordable whole genome sequencing for rabies surveillance utilising nanopore technology. We used this workflow in Kenya, Tanzania and the Philippines to generate rabies virus genomes in two to three days, reducing costs to approximately £60 per genome. This is over half the cost of metagenomic sequencing previously conducted for Tanzanian samples, which involved exporting samples to the UK and a three- to six-month lag time. Ongoing optimization of workflows are likely to reduce these costs further. We also present tools to support routine whole genome sequencing and interpretation for genomic surveillance. Moreover, combined with training workshops to empower scientists in-country, we show that local sequencing capacity can be readily established and sustainable, negating the common misperception that cutting-edge genomic research can only be conducted in high resource laboratories. More generally, we argue that the capacity to harness genomic data is a game-changer for endemic disease surveillance and should precipitate a new wave of researchers from low- and middle-income countries.

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Bolstering human rabies surveillance in Africa is crucial to eliminating canine-mediated rabies

Cited by 21 publications

References 33 publications

One Health in Practice: Using Integrated Bite Case Management to Increase Detection of Rabid Animals in Tanzania

One Health in Practice: Using Integrated Bite Case Management to Increase Detection of Rabid Animals in Tanzania

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Rabies Reemergence in Latin America: the case of Arequipa, Peru

Rapid in-country sequencing of whole virus genomes to inform rabies elimination programmes

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