Laboratory Confirmation of Human Rabies by RT-PCR and qRT-PCR Bamako: Report of a Case in a 4-Year-Old Girl at the Mali Hospital

Abstract

Rabies is a zoonotic disease of viral origin transmitted mainly to humans by biting or licking the injured skin of sick animals. It is an untreatable disease that is fatal once it has been declared. Worldwide, 59,000 cases of rabies-related deaths are recorded each year. The diagnosis of rabies is clinical, biological, and anatomopathological. The aim was to establish the laboratory confirmation capacity for human rabies in Mali. The patient, a Malian female, aged four years, was bitten by a dog around her house in district sixth of Bamako near national road number six in 2020. The patient visited the doctor after a two-month bite. However, she was neither referred to the health center for an effective therapeutic measure nor vaccination (post-exposure prophylaxis). The patient was presented with psychomotor excitation, hypersalivation, aerophobia, and hydrophobia symptoms and visited a Malian hospital named “Hospital of Mali”. The patient was admitted with a history of animal bites and symptoms of rabies, and the patient was classified as a probable rabies case. The patient was then referred to an infectious disease physician and hospitalized. After referring the patient to the infectious disease physician, the physician sent oral swab and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples to confirm to the Laboratory of Applied Molecular Biology. Human rabies was confirmed (RT-PCR) by the zoonotic unit of the Laboratory of Applied Molecular Biology. Diagnosis and therapy of human rabies without post-exposure management after a dog bites were still challenging. It was possible to confirm the human rabies case in Mali by RT-PCR and qRT-PCR.