User:Sage1242/Prevalence of rabies

Europe[edit]
Several countries in Europe have been designated rabies-free jurisdictions: Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia,[Link to precise page] Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland,[better source needed] and the United Kingdom.

Benelux[edit]
The Netherlands has been designated rabies-free since 1923, Belgium since 2008. Isolated cases of rabies involving illegally smuggled pets from Africa, as well as infected animals crossing the German and French borders, do occur.

Germany[edit]
Nine deaths from rabies were reported in Germany between 1981 and 2005. Two were caused by animal bites within Germany (one fox, one dog), and four were acquired abroad. In the remaining three cases, the source was a transplant from an infected donor who had died of heart failure prior to developing rabies symptoms. On 28 September 2008, the World Organisation for Animal Health declared Germany free of rabies.

Ireland[edit]
In 1897 the Disease of Animals Act included provisions to prevent the spread of rabies throughout Ireland. There have been no indigenous cases reported since 1903. In 2009, four people in Dublin received rabies vaccination therapy after being bitten by an imported kitten, although subsequent examination of the kitten yielded a negative result for rabies.

Norway[edit]
The death of a woman on 6 May 2019 from the rabies virus was reported to be the first in Norway for almost 200 years. She contracted the virus while on holiday with friends in the Philippines, and after being bitten by a stray puppy they had rescued.

Spain[edit]
The first case of rabies since 1978 was confirmed in the city of Toledo, Central Spain, on 5 June 2013. The dog had been imported from Morocco. No human fatalities have been reported, although adults and children were reported to have been bitten by the animal. There was another case in 2019, although the victim was infected in Morocco, after being bitten by a cat.

Switzerland[edit]
A rabies epidemic spread by red foxes reached Switzerland in 1967. After multiple solutions were tried; baiting foxes with chicken heads laced with vaccine proved to be the most successful. Switzerland has been rabies free since the 1990s.

United Kingdom[edit]
The UK was declared rabies free in 1902 but there were further outbreaks after 1918 when servicemen returning from war smuggled rabid dogs back to Britain from France and Belgium. The disease was subsequently re-eradicated and Britain was declared rabies-free in 1922 after the introduction of compulsory quarantine for dogs.

Since 1902, there have been 26 deaths in the UK from rabies (excluding the European bat lyssavirus 2 case discussed below). A case in 1902 occurred shortly before the eradication of rabies from the UK, and no details were recorded for a case in 1919. All other cases of rabies caused by rabies virus acquired the infection while abroad. Sixteen cases (62%) involved infections acquired in India, Pakistan or Bangladesh, with the remainder of infections originating in Africa and Southeast Asia.

Since 2000, four deaths from rabies have occurred; none of these cases had received any post-exposure prophylactic treatment. In 2001, there were two deaths from infections acquired in Nigeria and the Philippines. One death occurred in 2005 from an infection acquired by a dog bite in Goa (western India). A woman died on 6 January 2009 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She is believed to have been infected in South Africa, probably from being scratched by a dog.[failed verification] Prior to this, the last reported human case of the disease in Northern Ireland was in 1938. The most recent case was a woman who died on 28 May 2012 in London after being bitten by a dog in South Asia.

A rabies-like lyssavirus, called European bat lyssavirus 2, was identified in bats in 2003. In 2002, there was a fatal case in a bat ha