London: Have not got your dog vaccinated yet? Go ahead as your little effort may save many lives.
Some 160 people a day die from preventable canine rabies, a majority in India and other developing countries where hospitals do little to provide care and death is inevitable.
Rabies in dogs also cause annual economic losses of up to $8.6 billion around the globe, researchers found.
The study by the London-based Global Alliance for Rabies Control, the first of its kind, said rabies is almost always fatal, but nearly 100 percent preventable. Canine vaccines can prevent the disease worldwide, but there are no programmes in place to make it happen.
"The proportion of dogs vaccinated is far below than necessary to control the disease across almost all countries of Asia and Africa," the researchers found.
Rabies is close to 100 percent fatal and the best, most cost-effective way of preventing canine rabies is by vaccinating dogs.
This needs to be supplemented by improving access to human vaccines, the study by the Global Alliance for Rabies Control (GARC) noted.
"This ground-breaking study is an essential step towards improved control and eventual elimination of rabies," said co-author professor Louis Nel from GARC.
"An understanding of the actual burden helps us determine and advocate for the resources needed to tackle this fatal disease," he added.
Led by Katie Hampson from the University of Glasgow, the study found that the greatest risk of canine rabies is in the poorest countries.
"The countries that have invested most in dog vaccination are the ones where human deaths from the disease have been virtually eliminated," the authors noted.
As many as 20,000 people die of rabies every year in India. Worldwide, the figure is 59,000 deaths every year.
