Analysis of Epidemiological Characteristics of Rabies and Strategies for Its Prevention and Treatment from 2000 to 2004 in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

Objective This study was performed to analyze the epidemiological features of ra-bies and probe the key strategies and measures of prevention and treatment in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region．Methods The data of epidemic situation and epidemiological survey of ra—bies in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region were collected and statistically analyzed using SPSS software package version 10．0 for Windows．Results The incidence of rabies presented a sus—tained and rapid increase with the area of distribution expanding unceasingly．The epidemic situa—tion also spread from the economically backward mountain areas in western Guizhou to southeast-em and the northem Guizhou where economy was relatively developed．The onset time of the disease was associated with climate．With an overall predominance in sweltering summer and au—tumn．Eighty five percent of cases resulted from dog injury，and those who were not given wash—ing，disinfection and debridement of wound in time after exposure accounted for 68.0％，88.5％，91.5％．Respectively．Only 5.9％ of the rabies cases were given a whole vaccination after expo—sure．Those who used anti—rabies serum were only 1.7％．Eighty percent of rabies vaccines sam-pied in Guangxi didn't meet the specification．Eighty nine cyno—brain specimens were collected from the healthy dogs and 13.5％ of the specimens were found to Carry the virus．Conclusion It is seen that rabies develops rapidly in Guangxi．The departments responsible for public health should strengthen health education and the management of vaccination in rural areas，and immu-nization of rabies prior to exposure should be taken as the key in the prevention and control of the disease