Current Challenges of Preventive Vaccination Against Rabies

Abstract

The urgency of the rabies problem for all mankind and the search for new ways of eradicating the disease entailed the creation of a new global initiative for rabies elimination ‒ «United Against Rabies» which sets a highly ambitious goal of achieving zero rabies human deaths by 2030. The many years of international experience in elimination of street dogs, which account for 99 % of rabies cases, did not produce the desired results, therefore the focus was shifted to mass vaccination of dogs (minimum 70 % of dog population). The rabies problem is complex and global, it requires efforts from all the parties involved as well as hefty investment. The paper presents the results of a continuous long-term analysis of the rabies situation in Russia and across the world, as well as analysis of the current state of vaccination against rabies which plays an important, if not crucial, role in prevention of rabies in humans who got bitten by infected animals. The paper formulates the main currently existing ways of solving the rabies problem, namely: mass vaccination of dogs; improvement of dosing schedules and administration routes of medicines against rabies; analysis of immunity development mechanisms in immunocompromised patients; progressive implementation of vaccination of people who got bitten by infected animals, and alternative administration routes; development of an express method of the neutralising antibody titer determination; raising public awareness about disease hazards.