Surveillance and control of rabies in La Reunion, Mayotte, and Madagascar.

Soa Fy Andriamandimby (1) , Jean-Michel Heraud (1) , Ravo Ramiandrasoa (2) , Maherisoa Ratsitorahina (3) , Jhon Rasambainarivo (4) , Laurent Dacheux (5) , Anthony Lepelletier (5) , Steven Goodman (6, 7) , Jean-Marc Reynes (8) , Hervé Bourhy (5)

1 IPM - Unité de Virologie [Antananarivo, Madagascar]
2 Institut Pasteur de Madagascar
3 IPM - Unité d'Epidémiologie [Antananarivo, Madagascar]
4 Université d'Antananarivo
5 CNR - Centre National de Référence de la Rage-Dynamique des Lyssavirus et adaptation à l'hôte
6 Field Museum of Natural History [Chicago, USA]
7 Association Vahatra [Antananarivo, Madagascar]
8 UBIVE - Biologie des Infections Virales Émergentes - Biology of Emerging Viral Infections

Mayotte and La Reunion islands are currently free of animal rabies and surveillance is performed by the French Human and Veterinary Public Health Services. However, dog rabies is still enzootic in Madagascar with 4 to 10 confirmed human cases each year. The number of antirabies medical centres in Madagascar is still scarce to provide easy access to the local population for post-exposure rabies prophylaxis. Furthermore, stray dog populations are considerable and attempts to control rabies by mass campaigns of dog vaccination have not received sufficient attention from the national health authorities. To address these challenges, an expanded program to control rabies needs to be initiated by the Malagasy authorities.

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]; Animal biology; Veterinary medicine and animal Health

Soa Fy Andriamandimby, Jean-Michel Heraud, Ravo Ramiandrasoa, Maherisoa Ratsitorahina, Jhon Rasambainarivo, et al.. Surveillance and control of rabies in La Reunion, Mayotte, and Madagascar.. Veterinary Research, 2013, 44, pp.77. ⟨10.1186/1297-9716-44-77⟩. ⟨pasteur-00868768⟩