Abstract
Urban (principally canine-mediated) rabies has been a public health risk for people living in Serbia for centuries. The first legal act in urban rabies prevention in Serbia was established in 1834 by introducing high taxes for pet dog owners. Five years later in 1839, the first set of literature describing rabies prevention was issued by the health department from The Serbian Ministry of Interior. An overview of cauterization of rabies wounds was presented as the principal method of rabies post exposure prophylaxis. In 1890, a human rabies vaccination was introduced in Serbia with the royal government directive which ordered patients to be treated at the Pasteur Institute in Budapest in receipt of rabies vaccination. Urban (canine) rabies was eliminated during the 1980s, but sylvatic (principally fox-mediated) rabies still prevailed. The last human rabies case was recorded in the Province of Kosovo and Metohija in 1980. Sylvatic rabies in Serbia is in the final stages of elimination by orally vaccinating foxes (Vulpes vulpes). The only published finding of a lyssavirus among Serbian bats was made in 1954 by Dr Milan Nikolić in the vicinity of Novi Sad. In 2006, a comprehensive two-year active surveillance program of lyssaviruses in bats in Serbia was undertaken. In this single study, all of the bats from Serbia tested negative for a lyssavirus.
Highlights
The history of diagnostics, the control of rabies, and human rabies prophylaxis in Serbia has been challenging, largely reflecting the turbulent history of ethnicities and states in this and the wider European area
Sylvatic rabies in Serbia is in the final stages of elimination by orally vaccinating foxes (Vulpes vulpes)
The first legal act aimed at the prevention of urban rabies, established in 1834, was the introduction of high taxes for dogs kept only as pets in order to limit the number of such dogs
Summary
The history of diagnostics, the control of rabies, and human rabies prophylaxis in Serbia has been challenging, largely reflecting the turbulent history of ethnicities and states in this and the wider European area. The presence and movement of owned dogs in populated areas of Turkey was tolerated without owner supervision, enabling the maintenance and growth of an unowned dog population, creating a major naïve population of dogs and thereby sustaining the spread of urban rabies [1] These were the main historical events that shaped both the social and natural factors determining rabies incidence and opportunities for rabies control in Serbian territory at a time preceding the formation of the Serbian state. The purpose of this historical review is to expose the dynamics of rabies appearance in Serbia in humans and domestic and wild animals and the development of methodology for rabies control, with special emphasis on the mutual interaction of disease appearance and specific control measures. This historical review should be useful for future public health policies for the control of emerging infectious diseases from a One Health perspective, especially in low- and middle-income countries
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