Fifty Years of the National Rabies Control Program in Brazil under the One Health Perspective.

In 1973, the National Rabies Program was created in Brazil through an agreement between the Ministry of Health and Agriculture. Since its beginning, it developed integrated action through access to free post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for people at risk, dog vaccination campaigns, a joint surveillance system, and awareness. This study aims to describe human rabies in Brazil under the One Health perspective in recent decades, including achievements in the control of dog-mediated cases and challenges in human cases transmitted by wild animals.

Progress towards eliminating canine rabies: policies and perspectives from Latin America and the Caribbean.

Human rabies transmitted by dogs is considered a neglected disease that can be eliminated in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) by 2015. The aim of this paper is to discuss canine rabies policies and projections for LAC regarding current strategies for achieving this target and to critically review the political, economic and geographical factors related to the successful elimination of this deadly disease in the context of the difficulties and challenges of the region. The strong political and technical commitment to control rabies in LAC in the 1980s, started with the regional programme coordinated by the Pan American Health Organization.

Rabies transmitted by vampire bats to humans: an emerging zoonotic disease in Latin America?

Human rabies transmitted by vampire bats reached new heights in Latin America in 2005. A total of 55 human cases were reported in several outbreaks, 41 of them in the Amazon region of Brazil. Peru and Brazil had the highest number of reported cases from 1975 to 2006.

Veterinary public health activities in the Pan American Health Organization over the past 58 years: 1949-2007.

The veterinary public health activities of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) over the past 58 years have been devoted to the strategic orientation and development of priorities for the health sector with three main strategic areas, as follows: surveillance, prevention and control of zoonoses, prevention of foodborne diseases and promotion of animal health to boost production and productivity and, consequently, food security and socio-economic development. For PAHO, the link between health and agriculture is undeniable and their integration essential.

Current status of human rabies transmitted by dogs in Latin America.

Latin American countries made the political decision to eliminate human rabies transmitted by dogs by the year 2005. The purpose of the current study is to evaluate to what extent this goal has been reached. The epidemiological situation and control measures were analyzed and broken down within the countries by georeferencing.

Wildlife, exotic pets, and emerging zoonoses.

Most emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic; wildlife constitutes a large and often unknown reservoir. Wildlife can also be a source for reemergence of previously controlled zoonoses. Although the discovery of such zoonoses is often related to better diagnostic tools, the leading causes of their emergence are human behavior and modifications to natural habitats (expansion of human populations and their encroachment on wildlife habitat), changes in agricultural practices, and globalization of trade.

Emerging or re-emerging bacterial zoonoses: factors of emergence, surveillance and control.

Surveillance and control of emerging bacterial zoonoses is essential in order to prevent both human and animal deaths and to avoid potential economic disorders created by trade barriers or a ban on free circulation of human or animal populations. An increased risk of exposition to zoonotic agents, the breakdown of the host's defenses, the emergence of bacterial strains resistant to antibiotics and their widespread distribution as well as conjunctural causes associated with the action or inaction of man have been identified as the main factors leading to the emergence or re-emergence of bacterial zoonoses. After an in-depth review of these various factors, the present manuscript reviews the main components of detection and surveillance of emerging or re-emerging bacterial zoonoses.

The control of human (neuro)cysticercosis: which way forward?

Taenia solium cysticercosis, and its public health and economic consequences, appears to be a growing problem in poor areas of Africa, Asia and Latin America where people eat pork and traditional pig husbandry is practiced (and expanding). Its burden is counted in terms of human disease (mainly neurocysticercosis related epilepsy) and economic losses, in a context of both commercial and traditional subsistence pig farming. Although substantial fragmentary information seems to be available from local settings, national and global burdens due to T.