One Health Methodological Considerations for Rabies Prevention and Control

TOPICAL COLLECTIONS

Guest Editor

Charles E. Rupprecht

LYSSA LLC

<p>During the past 40+ years, Dr. Rupprecht has amassed diverse knowledge and professional abilities related to basic scientific and applied biomedical discovery, administrative, communication and leadership skills and considerable global experience in viral disease detection, prevention and control. After a field experience in Panama while working for the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, he combined biological sciences and veterinary medicine centered upon zoonotic diseases, with a focus on rabies, while at the Wistar Institute and later at Thomas Jefferson University. This research included development of monoclonal antibodies against lyssaviruses for diagnosis and prophylaxis, as well as the development of a vaccinia-rabies glycoprotein recombinant virus vaccine, which became the focus of his post-doctoral investigation, resulting in the only licensed biologic in the USA for wildlife vaccination, with more than 100 million doses utilized in North America from 1990 to date. Thereafter, for close to 20 years, he was the Chief of the Rabies Program at CDC, Director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Reference & Research on Rabies and Head of the OIE Rabies Reference Laboratory. He has co-authored  more than 370 peer-reviewed publications and numerous book chapters. Currently, he serves as a full time independent biomedical consultant with academia, government, industry, and NGOs, as well as an Expert Technical Advisor on Rabies for the PAHO/WHO.</p>

Collection Overview

Rabies is a severe, fatal infectious viral disease distributed throughout the world. Concentrated upon the reduction in mortality, major organizations, such as the FAO, OIE, and WHO, have envisioned the targeted, global elimination of human rabies caused via dogs by 2030. In addition, a diverse array of viruses that cause this zoonosis is found in domestic animals and among multiple wildlife reservoirs. Focusing on these viral agents, mammalian hosts, and environmental interactions in a more holistic fashion is a crucial strategy for more practical and economical solutions for this zoonosis in the 21st century. Various experimental techniques in the field, laboratory, and clinic are useful for rabies prevention and control in a One Health context. Relevant, visual health communications on available techniques would improve utilization by biomedical professionals and conservation biologists as a model for other neglected infectious diseases. To capture such unique methods would entail ~ 10 videos that would include aspects related to mass vaccination of dogs; oral vaccination of wildlife by aerial distribution; animal consumption of vaccine-laden baits at constructed bait stations; camera trapping to observe the target and non-target spp. attracted to vaccine-laden baits; enhanced rabies surveillance of road-killed animals; trap-vaccinate and release of wildlife; control of vampire bats; human intradermal rabies immunization; infiltration of wounds with rabies immune globulin; assessment of serological response to rabies vaccines; etc.