Outbreak of urban rabies transmitted by dogs in Santa Marta, northern Colombia
Keywords:
rabies, rabies virus, Lyssavirus, zoonoses, epidemiologic surveillance, Colombia
Abstract
Introduction. An urban rabies outbreak occurred in the District of Santa Marta between April 2006 and January 2008, which resulted in the deaths of 4 humans and 28 dogs.Objectives. Three objectives were entertained—first, the diagnostic laboratory techniques were described as well as the rabies control actions taken; second, the impact of anti-rabies dog vaccination was assessed in terms of neutralizing antibody seroconversion; and third, the epidemiological significance and public health implications of the outbreak were examined.
Materials and methods. Rabies diagnosis was achieved by direct immunofluorescence, inoculation of mice and immunohistochemistry. Typing of the virus was achieved by indirect immunofluorescence. Control activities included a dog population census, vaccination and treatments for persons exposed to rabies, mass vaccination of dogs and cats, and initiation of a community education program. Seroconversion was investigated by capture ELISA.
Results. Antigenic variant 1 was detected in all cases. Of vaccinated dogs, 77% were seropositive,and 47% were seroprotected against rabies. No differences were found in the humoral response between dog gender; however significant differences in dog seroprotection were discovered between localized comunities in Santa Marta.
Conclusions. The 2006-2008 urban rabies outbreak was the largest reported in a city in Colombia. It was caused by rabid dogs, and demonstrated that these animals are still a threat for human health despite the existence of efficient rabies vaccines. The control of the outbreak was achieved 20 months after the first rabies case in dogs, and 14 months after the initiation of the first mass vaccination of animals. The necessity of implementation and maintenance of rabies control strategies is underlined for minimizing human risk.
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References
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29. Schneider MC. Estudo de avaliação sobre área de risco para a raiva no Brasil. Rio de Janeiro, 1990 (Dissertação de Mestrado). Rio de Janeiro: Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública da Fundação Oswaldo Cruz; 1990.
30. Valderrama J, García I, Figueroa G, Rico E, Sanabria J, Rocha N, et al. Brotes de rabia humana transmitida por vampiros en los municipios de Bajo y Alto Baudó, departamento del Chocó, Colombia 2004-2005. Biomédica. 2006;26:387-96.
31. Delgado S, Carmenes P. Immune response following a vaccination campaign against rabies in dogs from northwestern Spain. Rev Vet Med. 1997;31:257-61.
32. Shimazaki Y, Inoue S, Takahashi C, Gamoh K, Etoh M, Kamiyama T, et al. Immune response to Japanese rabies vaccine in domestic dogs. J Vet Med B Infect Dis Vet Public Health. 2003;50:95-8.
33. Rigo L, Honer MR. Titulacao de anticorpo contra o virus de raiva em caes, em Campo Grande, MS na Campanha Anti-rábica de 2003. Rev Soc Bras Med Trop. 2006;39:553-5.
34. López R, Díaz A, Condori E. Susceptibilidad canina a rabia después de una campaña de vacunación en zonas endémicas del Perú. Revista Peruana de Medicina Experimental y Salud Pública. 2007;24:13-9.
35. Chomel B, Chappuis G, Bullón F, Cárdenas E, de Beublain TD, Lombard M, et al. Mass vaccination campaign against rabies: are dogs correctly protected? The Peruvian experience. Rev Infect Dis. 1988;10(Suppl.4):697-702.
36. Seghaier C, Cliquet F, Hammami S, Aouina T, Aubert M. Rabies mass vaccination campaigns in Tunisia: are vaccinated dogs correctly immunized? Am J Trop Med Hyg. 1999;61:879-84.
2. Wunner WH, Larson JK, Dietzchold B, Smith CL. The molecular biology of rabies virus. Rev Infect Dis. 1988;10(Suppl.4):771-84.
3. Tordo N, Kouknetzoff A. The rabies virus genome: an overview. Onderstepoort J Vet Res. 1993;60:263-9.
4. Bourhy H, Kissi B, Audry L, Smreczak M, Sadkowska-Todys M, Kulonen K, et al. Ecology and evolution of rabies virus in Europe. J Gen Virol. 1999;80:2545-57.
5. Guerra MA, Curns AT, Rupprecht CE, Hanlon CA, Krebs JW, Childs JE. Skunk and raccoon rabies in the eastern United States: temporal and spatial analysis. Emerg Infect Dis. 2003;9:1143-50.
6. Nel L, Jacobs J, Jaftha J, Meredith C. Natural spillover of a distinctly Canidae-associated biotype of rabies virus into an expanded wildlife host range in southern Africa. Virus Genes. 1997;15:79-82.
7. Sabeta CT, Bingham J, Nel LH. Molecular epidemiology of canid rabies in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Virus Res. 2003;91:203-11.
8. Johnson N, Black C, Smith J, Un H, McElhinney LM, Aylan O, et al. Rabies emergence among foxes in Turkey. J Wildl Dis. 2003;39:262-70.
9. Krebs JW, Williams SM, Smith JS, Rupprecht CE, Childs JE. Rabies among infrequently reported mammalian carnivores in United States, 1960-2000. J Wildl Dis. 2003;39:253-61.
10. Stankov S. Typing of field rabies virus strains in FR Yugoslavia by limited sequence analysis and monoclonal antibodies. Med Pregl. 2001;54:446-52.
11. Páez A, Saad C, Núñez C, Boshell J. Molecular epidemiology of rabies in northern Colombia 1994-2003:Evidence for human and fox rabies associated with dogs. Epidemiol Infect. 2005;133:529-36.
12. Ministerio de Salud, Instituto Nacional de Salud. Rabia. Serie de notas e informes técnicos. Quinta edición. Bogotá, D.C.: Minsalud-INS: 1995.
13. Rico A, Díaz A, Rico E. Informe de la rabia urbana en Colombia, 1996-2001. Programa de Zoonosis. Bogotá D.C.: Ministerio de Salud: 2001.
14. Páez A, Núñez C, García C, Boshell J. Molecular epidemiology of rabies epizootics in Colombia: evidence for human and dog rabies associated with bats. J Gen Virol. 2003;84:795-802.
15. Páez A, Núñez C, García C, Boshell J. Epidemiología molecular de epizootias de rabia en Colombia 1994-2002. Evidencia de rabia humana y canina asociada a quirópteros. Biomédica. 2003;23:19-30.
16. Hughes GJ, Páez A, Boshell J, Rupprecht CE. A phylogenetic reconstruction of the epidemiological history of canine rabies virus variants in Colombia. Infect Gen Evol. 2004;4:45-51.
17. Páez A, Velasco-Villa A, Rey G, Rupprecht C. Molecular epidemiology of rabies in Colombia 1994-2005 based on partial nucleoprotein gene sequences. Virus Res. 2007;130:172-81.
18. Ministerio de la Protección Social. Resolución 002921 de junio 25 de 2007. Declaración de emergencia sanitaria por brote de rabia humana transmitida por caninos y desabastecimiento de vacunas y sueros anti-rábicos en el Distrito de Santa Marta, Colombia. Bogotá, D.C.: Ministerio de la Protección Social; 2007.
19. McQueen JL, Lewis AL, Schneider NJ. Rabies diagnosis by fluorescent antibody. Its evaluation in a public health laboratory. Am J Public Health. 1960;50:1743-52.
20. Meslin FX, Kaplan MM, Koprowski H. The mouse inoculation test (Chapter 6), and The fluorescent antibody test (Chapter 7). In: World Health Organization. Laboratory techniques in rabies. Fourth edition. Geneva: World Health Organization; 1996.
21. Rodríguez G. Diagnóstico inmunológico del virus de la rabia en tejido incluido en parafina. Inf Quinc Epidemiol Nac. 1997;16:235-6.
22. Koprowski H. Prueba de inoculación en ratones. En: Organización Mundial de la Salud. Técnicas de laboratorio aplicadas a la rabia. Washington D.C.: OPS/OMS; 1956. p. 57-69.
23. Dietzschold B, Rupprecht CE, Tollis M, Lafon M, Mattel J, Wiktor TJ, et al. Antigenic diversity of the glycoprotein and nucleocapsid proteins of rabies and rabies related viruses: implications for epidemiology and control of rabies. Rev Infect Dis. 1988;10(Suppl.4):785-98.
24. Ministerio de Salud, Instituto Nacional de Salud. Rabia. Guía práctica para la atención integral de personas agredidas por un animal potencialmente transmisor de rabia. Serie de notas e informes técnicos No. 4. Sexta edición. Bogotá, D.C.: Ministerio de Salud-INS: 2002.
25. Scheffé H. Statistical inference in the non-parametric case. Ann Math Statist. 1943;14:305-32.
26. Kolmogorov A. Confidence limits for an unknown distribution function. Ann Math Statist. 1941;12:461-3.
27. Smirnov NV. Table for estimating the goodness of fit of empirical distributions. Ann Math Statist. 1948;19:279-81.
28. Mann HB, Whitney DR. On a test of whether one or two random variables is stochastically larger than the other. Ann Math Statist. 1947;18:50-60.
29. Schneider MC. Estudo de avaliação sobre área de risco para a raiva no Brasil. Rio de Janeiro, 1990 (Dissertação de Mestrado). Rio de Janeiro: Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública da Fundação Oswaldo Cruz; 1990.
30. Valderrama J, García I, Figueroa G, Rico E, Sanabria J, Rocha N, et al. Brotes de rabia humana transmitida por vampiros en los municipios de Bajo y Alto Baudó, departamento del Chocó, Colombia 2004-2005. Biomédica. 2006;26:387-96.
31. Delgado S, Carmenes P. Immune response following a vaccination campaign against rabies in dogs from northwestern Spain. Rev Vet Med. 1997;31:257-61.
32. Shimazaki Y, Inoue S, Takahashi C, Gamoh K, Etoh M, Kamiyama T, et al. Immune response to Japanese rabies vaccine in domestic dogs. J Vet Med B Infect Dis Vet Public Health. 2003;50:95-8.
33. Rigo L, Honer MR. Titulacao de anticorpo contra o virus de raiva em caes, em Campo Grande, MS na Campanha Anti-rábica de 2003. Rev Soc Bras Med Trop. 2006;39:553-5.
34. López R, Díaz A, Condori E. Susceptibilidad canina a rabia después de una campaña de vacunación en zonas endémicas del Perú. Revista Peruana de Medicina Experimental y Salud Pública. 2007;24:13-9.
35. Chomel B, Chappuis G, Bullón F, Cárdenas E, de Beublain TD, Lombard M, et al. Mass vaccination campaign against rabies: are dogs correctly protected? The Peruvian experience. Rev Infect Dis. 1988;10(Suppl.4):697-702.
36. Seghaier C, Cliquet F, Hammami S, Aouina T, Aubert M. Rabies mass vaccination campaigns in Tunisia: are vaccinated dogs correctly immunized? Am J Trop Med Hyg. 1999;61:879-84.
How to Cite
1.
Páez A, Rey G, Agudelo C, Dulce A, Parra E, Díaz-Granados H, et al. Outbreak of urban rabies transmitted by dogs in Santa Marta, northern Colombia. Biomed. [Internet]. 2009 Sep. 1 [cited 2025 Apr. 7];29(3):424-36. Available from: https://revistabiomedicaorg.biteca.online/index.php/biomedica/article/view/14
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