Global Financial Crisis as a Challenge for Prevention of Human Rabies in the Former Soviet Republics

Prevention and control of rabies remains a pressing problem in the least developed and developing countries of Eurasia. In many of them, this problem is largely due to financial deterrents. Among these, the chronic shortage of funds for early detection, prompt diagnosis and adequate prophylaxis of animal rabies has serious consequences for public health. Today, this problem is acutely felt in the Former Soviet Union (FSU) area, where countries are still in the process of recovery from previous and current economic shocks. With the onset of the global financial crisis, the epidemiological situation with rabies in the FSU area has worsened, which was reflected in dozens of human deaths over the past five years. To improve early detection of rabies in humans, the Institut Pasteur du Cambodge (IPC) has developed a method of rapid ante-mortem diagnosis of human rabies, which can be used by public health authorities as a tool to increase effectiveness of disease case management and to raise awareness of their governments about the risk posed by this infection to human health and life.