![]() Also, when virus isolation has been necessary, rabies tissue culture infection or the mouse inoculation test has been used ( 16, 17). At present, this methodology has been replaced by immunofluorescence. Rabies diagnosis has been historically based on histopathological methods, such as cytoplasmic inclusion bodies detection (Negri bodies) ( 16, 17). These agencies have set the goal of the elimination of dog-mediated human rabies by 2030 ( 4). Moreover, rabies control under a One Health approach is a top priority for the World Health Organisation (WHO), Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), and Global Alliance for Rabies Control (GARC). Based on the importance of prevention, the European Union has been focused on the need for the elimination of wildlife rabies in European countries by 2020 ( 15). As there is no clinical treatment, post-exposure prophylaxis has been demonstrated to be the most effective method to control and prevent human rabies cases worldwide ( 4). The disease has a marked neurotropic character and its action on the nervous system gives rise to a characteristic manifestation of disease with excitatory signs, hallucinations and hydrophobia (furious rabies), or signs of generalised paralysis and coma (paralytic rabies), as a consequence of generally fatal encephalomyelitis ( 1, 4). Furthermore, it is difficult to differentiate the symptoms of the disease caused by any Lyssavirus species ( 10, 11). Thus, from an epidemiological point of view, there are two epidemiological cycles: terrestrial rabies, maintained by domestic and wild carnivores, and rabies in chiropterans, where the virus is maintained in colonies of bats, both blood-sucking and insectivores or frugivores ( 14). Indeed, bats are considered to be the ancestral hosts of lyssaviruses, and although the risk of human exposure is low, sporadic human rabies cases infected through a bat bite have been reported ( 10– 13). Currently, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) has delineated the genus into seventeen species, plus one related virus not yet taxonomically assessed, and segregated into three phylogroups (I, II, III-IV) ( Table 1) ( 8, 9).įifteen of the seventeen lyssavirus species are hosted by bats ( 10). The Lyssavirus contains a single-stranded RNA genome of negative sense, which encodes five structural proteins: nucleoprotein (N), phosphoprotein (P), matrix protein (M), glycoprotein (G) and the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (L), in the order 3′-N-P-M-G-L-5′ 7 ( 6). Since then, rabies has been present worldwide, except in Antarctica ( 4). Moreover, the Greek ancient world called the disease “lyssa” (after the Greek goddess of madness, rage, and frenzy), due to the clinical signs it presented ( 6, 7). This disease has been known since at least the 23rd century BC (Before Christ) in the Eshuma Code of Babylon ( 1). Rabies is caused by a group of neurotropic viruses of the genus Lyssavirus, belonging to the family Rhabdoviridae and order Mononegavirales ( 1, 6). What Have We Learned from Rabies Disease? Rabies, a Long Etiological History ![]() Although rabies remains one of the most feared and important threats to public health in the 21st century, it is considered one of the neglected diseases ( 2, 3). The infection usually causes acute progressive encephalitis, and death eventually occurs if it is not treated before symptoms appear ( 1, 4). Each year, rabies is estimated to be responsible for 59,000 human cases, mostly in Africa and Asia, and ~99% of human rabies cases are acquired after direct contact with dogs ( 3– 5). Although the enzootic transmission of rabies is through Carnivora (dogs, jackals, wolves, etc.) and Chiroptera (bats), it can spill over to other mammalian species such as humans, who can end up developing the disease ( 2). Rabies is one of the oldest and most important zoonoses worldwide, due to its extreme and inevitably lethal outcomes ( 1, 2).
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