NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Scientists report that while incidences of rabies infection in humans has plummeted in past decades, bats, foxes and raccoons are experiencing a rabies epidemic.
"For the past 20 or so years, what we would normally see are at most two or three human deaths a year nationwide," according to Bob Howard of the National Center for Infectious Disease (NCID), a branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He says this marks a steady improvement over statistics from the past 50 years.
But at the recent International Conference on Research Advances and Rabies Control in the Americas held in Atlanta, researchers admit that rabies continues to spread among animals in the wild.
"In 1995, in the U.S., somewhere in the vicinity of 9,000 animals both domestic and wild have been found to have a possible rabies contact," notes Howard. He says the number just five years ago was under 7,000.
A raccoon rabies epidemic in the Northeast, a fox-related outbreak in Texas, and an increase in the number of rabid bats have contributed to the upsurge in wildlife cases, Howard explained.
The Atlanta conference continues efforts begun last year to draft a new national rabies plan. Some of their suggestions include: interstate laws prohibiting the release of certain caught species into the wild, public education campaigns regarding euthanasia of stricken animals, and guidelines establishing just when animal euthanasia becomes a preferable course of action.
Howard says it may be possible to reduce rabies incidence in the wild. One technique is called 'oral baiting'; "You effectively surround the rabies-infested area with bait that is laced with a product that acts to vaccinate these animals," he explains, adding that "we have a very active baiting campaign in Texas."
A comprehensive oral-baiting program can be expensive, but Howard says it should be a public-health priority. "The state of Texas, for example, realizes that we do not want this disease to get a foothold," he says.
Many of the speakers at the conference focused on bats as perhaps the most threatening vector by which humans contract the disease. Of the 30 documented cases of human rabies between 1980 and 1996, "50% were associated with rabies virus variants found in insectivorous bats," according to CDC scientists. One nine-state CDC study found that "11% of bats that had contact with humans were rabid."
Howard says bats may also be behind many of the fatal rabies cases because bat bites often go unnoticed at the time. "It's interesting to note that in nearly 30% of the cases where people have found out later that they actually had rabies, they did not report having had contact with an animal," he explains. Howard says this is "particularly so with bats. The bite that occurs is so minute and so small that you're not aware of it."
Rabies is curable if caught soon after infection. But by the time symptoms appear, the disease becomes resistant to treatment, and the disease is often fatal.
For this reason, Howard says humans should take care around wild animals. "If you come upon a wild animal, you should maintain your distance from that animal, whether it occurs in your backyard or the wild," he says.
The CDC says owners must also ensure their pets are kept away from wild animals. "Of the seven cases (between 1980-1996) with a definite exposure history, six were attributable to dog bites," say CDC experts. But they add that "cats continue to be the domestic animal most frequently reported rabid."
