The world's deadliest disease
Rabies: Deadly. Ancient. Unimaginable.
It's one of the world's deadliest and oldest known diseases. A disease so dangerous that once symptoms show, it is already too late. Death is inevitable. It's haunted people for millennia, and despite being vaccine-preventable, it still causes unimaginable pain and suffering today.
Every 9 minutes someone dies from rabies
Rabies deaths are massively underreported and systemically ignored, because they disproportionately affect the most disadvantaged, most vulnerable, and most isolated of society.
99% of all human rabies deaths are caused by an infected dog bite
The vicious zoonotic disease can infect and kill any mammal. Dogs are one of the animals most prone to rabies. They serve as a reservoir for the disease, and are the main source of transmission to humans.
40% of all human rabies deaths are children under 15 years old
Lack of knowledge is a key reason why people, and most often children, die from rabies. Without knowing how to behave around dogs, how to avoid getting bitten or scratched or the crucial steps to take for life-saving treatment, they're constantly at risk.
Vaccinating a person against rabies can cost up to 50 times more than a dog
The human rabies vaccine is often inaccessible either due to distance or cost, and it only protects one person. While it plays a vital part in the elimination of death from rabies, it is not enough to protect communities against rabies in its own right. It doesn't address the source of the problem: canine rabies.
