FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 22, 2014

Contact: Cynthia Leckey, Environmental Manager; or Heidar Heshmati, MD, MPH, PhD, Director
Florida Department of Health, Brevard County
(321) 633-2100

FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, BREVARD COUNTY RECOGNIZES SEPTEMBER 28, 2014 AS WORLD RABIES DAY

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA—The Florida Department of Health in Brevard County will be joining health practitioners, rabies experts and activists worldwide to celebrate World Rabies Day.

We see this as an opportunity to show how important it is to prevent rabies in our community. Rabies deaths are on the increase, especially in African countries, and it’s mostly children who are dying from the disease. A child dies of rabies every ten minutes.

Rabies remains the world’s most deadly disease, but it is also 100% preventable. 55,000 people worldwide die each year from rabies, at a cost of US$4 billion, and nearly half these deaths are in Africa (around 44%). Rabies is transmitted from animals (mammals) to humans, and the main source of the disease in African countries is unvaccinated dogs. Controlling the disease in dog populations means it will disappear in all other species, and will no longer be such a risk to humans.

The World Rabies Day initiative, managed by the Global Alliance for Rabies Control, aims to bring together partners in communities and health services worldwide in an effort to address rabies prevention and control. It is important people know what to do if they are bitten by an animal. If someone is bitten, they should:

• Wash the wound thoroughly with soap and water for at least 15 minutes.
• Seek medical attention immediately, and ask for a course of post exposure vaccination against rabies (four injections in the arm on days 0, 3, 7, 14 of treatment). They must have the full course of treatment for it to be effective.
• Report the bite immediately by contacting Brevard County Animal Services & Enforcement at 321-633-2024.

If someone sees an animal acting strangely, they should:

• Stay well away from the animal and advise others to do so.
• Advise the local authorities immediately by contacting Brevard County Animal Services & Enforcement at 321-633-2024.

Additional information is available online at www.brevardeh.com by clicking on Rabies Program, www.cdc.gov/rabies and at http://www.rabiesalliance.org/world-rabies-day.

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