{"topic_id":"vaccine_guidelines_who_rabies_position","category":"vaccine-guidelines","context":"---\ntopic_id: vaccine_guidelines_who_rabies_position\ncategory: vaccine-guidelines\ntitle: \"WHO position — rabies: dog vaccination is the primary prevention of human disease (fact sheet)\"\nlang: en\nsource: \"World Health Organization (WHO) 'Rabies' fact sheet, who.int, first-hand, pulled 2026-07-23\"\nsource_file: pdf-raw/vaccine-guidelines/who_rabies_fact_sheet.html\ndate_parsed: 2026-07-23\ntokens_estimated: 360\nverification:\n  method: substring_match\n  claims: 8\n  passed: 8\n  date: 2026-07-23\n---\n\n# WHO position — rabies: dog vaccination prevents human disease\n\nSource: World Health Organization (WHO) \"Rabies\" fact sheet (who.int), first-hand, pulled 2026-07-23. This topic captures WHO's global position on rabies as a zoonosis and the role of **dog vaccination** in preventing human cases. Companion-animal relevance: veterinary/consumer rabies vaccination programs are the upstream intervention that protects both dogs and people.\n\n## Key WHO statements (verbatim)\n\n- Rabies is a serious public health problem in over 150 countries and territories, mainly in Asia and Africa.\n- It is a viral, zoonotic, neglected tropical disease that causes tens of thousands of deaths annually, with 40% being children under 15.\n- Dog bites and scratches cause 99% of the human rabies cases, and can be prevented through dog vaccination and bite prevention.\n- Once the virus infects the central nervous system and clinical symptoms appear, rabies is fatal in 100% of cases.\n- PEP consists of thorough wound washing, administration of a course of human rabies vaccine and, when indicated, rabies immunoglobulins (RIG).\n- Over 29 million people worldwide receive human rabies vaccine annually.\n- In the Americas, where dog-mediated rabies is mostly controlled, hematophagous (blood-feeding) bats are now the primary source of human rabies.\n- average estimated cost of rabies post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP)\n\nSource text: `pdf-raw/vaccine-guidelines/who_rabies_fact_sheet.html` (WHO \"Rabies\" fact sheet, who.int, pulled 2026-07-23).\n","sources":[],"tokens_estimated":360,"generated_at":null,"tip":"Use /api/v1/topics to discover more topics. /api/v1/nutrient for precise single-point queries. /api/v1/cross_compare for 2-3 standard comparisons."}