Rabies: An old disease of new importance

Abstract

Over the last two decades, scientists and health officials have been closely monitoring the exponential rise in rabies among wild raccoon populations in the Middle Atlantic and Northeastern United States. The current spread of the disease in these animals poses a new and potentially increased risk for humans, because of their prevalence in urban and suburban communities, where they are estimated to live in a density of 40 to 50 per square mile. Reasons for the current epizootic are not entirely clear. Some epidemiologists trace the origins to several infested raccoon shipments from Florida to hunting clubs in North Carolina and Virginia during the late 1970s (1). Whatever the reason may be, since 1977 the disease has spread relentlessly northward (Table 1). From the first report of a single rabid