Protecting children from rabies with education and pre-exposure prophylaxis: A school-based campaign in El Nido, Palawan, Philippines.

Background: Rabies remains endemic in the Philippines. A study was conducted in El Nido, Palawan, Philippines to: (i) detect the true incidence of animal bites in school children aged 5-14 years using active surveillance and compare these data to estimates from the existing passive surveillance system, (ii) evaluate the impact of rabies prevention education and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) on animal bite incidence, and (iii) assess the health economic impact of the interventions.

Methodology And Principal Findings: A cohort of 4,700 school children was followed-up for any suspect rabies exposures between January 2011 and December 2012.