Prevalence of rabies

The prevalence of rabies, a deadly viral disease affecting mammals, varies widely across the world and remains a persistent public health problem. Dog bites and scratches cause 99 percent of human cases worldwide, though in the United States most human cases come from bats. Almost all deaths occur in Asia and Africa, about 60 percent of them in Africa, and India accounts for 36 percent of global rabies deaths. An estimated 59,000 people die of rabies each year, although the figure is not substantiated by World Health Organization reports, which often total under 1,000 a year. Rabies is rare in Europe. Dog licensing, muzzling and large-scale vaccination of dogs, cats and ferrets have eliminated or reduced it in many countries, and oral bait vaccines work in wildlife. This entry is a population profile and is not medical advice.