Controlling rabies through a multidisciplinary, public health system in Trujillo, La Libertad, Peru

Abstract

Rabies remains endemic in Peru. In 1983, Latin America and the Caribbean promised to eliminate canine-transmitted rabies from the continent. This led to Peru introducing a multidisciplinary public health system for controlling and managing rabies across the country. The system consists of mass canine vaccination campaigns, post exposure prophylaxis and monitoring aggressor animals for signs of rabies. The Peruvian city of Trujillo, La Libertad, is an urban area where dogs are the principal reservoir for rabies. The disease burden of rabies in Trujillo, La Libertad is currently minimal, with no rabies cases in humans for over 10 years, and only three canine cases. No human deaths due to rabies have occurred for several decades. From this it can be inferred that antirabies systems such as this do have real effects in reducing cases of human rabies at a grass roots level.

Keywords:

• Rabies
• Trujillo
• Peru
• Public Health
• canine vaccination
• post-exposure prophylaxis
• aggressor animal observation

We would like to thank Tamara Hornik, Gabriel Adams, Marianne Comparet, the International Society for Neglected Tropical Diseases and Selwyn College, Cambridge for their support.