preview

Rabies Research Paper

Decent Essays

is nearly 100 percent effective in preventing rabies from developing. However, even though PEP has been around since the time of Louis Pasteur, and improved since then, it remains unavailable or unaffordable in developing countries where people are most at risk. The mortality rate of rabies is not comparable between North America and continents like Asia and Africa. North America deaths per year are usually about two compared to the thirty thousand in Asia and Africa. In the last one hundred years rabies has changed dramatically in the United States (Finnegan et.al, 2002). There is only one state that is rabies free and that is Hawaii. Around ninety percent of rabies cases take place with wildlife, whereas before 1960 majority came from …show more content…

All of these costs are at the hands of public health. The 300,000,000 dollars includes the vaccination of companion animals, animal control programs, maintenance of rabies laboratories, and medical costs, such as those incurred for rabies PEP (Yousaf et.al, 2012). It is estimated that forty thousand PEP are given each year, meaning that not only must there be a primary prevention plan but a secondary prevention plan as well. The vaccine is given in five doses over a three week the estimated cost exceeds one thousand dollars (Yousaf et.al, …show more content…

Most states require just dogs to have rabies vaccination, while some require both cats and dogs. There are also some states like Ohio, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, and Washington that do not require rabies vaccinations (CDC, 2010). In these states most laws or policies do not require rabies vaccination of dogs unless they have bitten someone and proof of rabies vaccination is unavailable. In most states all dog bites must be reported to the health department. Regulations vary greatly from state to state, and local laws vary as well. Local regulations, under law, can be stricter than laws at the State level. Punishment varies state to state and county to county (CDC, 2010). Many states also have pet importation laws that require a health certificate from a vet in order to legally move an animal across state lines (CDC, 2010). If a person’s pet was last vaccinated more than twelve months ago, and the person decides to move they are required by law to get their animal vaccinated. Some states do have an exemption form that a veterinarian must sign that states the pet is currently healthy, however they have had a reaction to the rabies virus or they have illness that rabies vaccine could react with (CDC, 2010). Hawaii has very strict quarantine regulations against

Get Access