Trop Med Infect Dis
August 2024
In 2018, an outbreak of human rabies caused by the hematophagous bat hit the Brazilian Amazon Basin community of Melgaço, Brazil, resulting in the death of 10 people, 9 of them children. The incidence of rabies has been on the rise among populations in conditions of vulnerability in this ecosystem due to human expansion into sylvatic environments and limited access to public health services. To address this issue, in September 2019, a collaborative effort from national, local, and international institutions promoted and executed a pilot for pre-exposure prophylaxis of a population in high-risk areas for hematophagous bat-mediated rabies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRabies, one of the most lethal global zoonoses, affects all mammals. It remains circulating worldwide in sylvatic cycles through terrestrial and airborne reservoirs, and in Brazil, bats are currently the main reservoirs and source of transmission. Wild boars, an important invasive alien species in Brazil, are a proven food source for hematophagous bats and may participate in the Brazilian sylvatic cycle of rabies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRabies virus is recognized as one of the most fatal zoonotic agents affecting all mammals. Wild boars (Sus scrofa), classified as a large-size exotic invasive species in Brazil with nationwide hunting permitted, may serve as an extra blood source for the common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus). Our aim was to document wild boar exposure to vampire bats to determine the seroprevalence of rabies virus antibodies in wild boars and to determine the immune status of hunters in southern and central-western Brazilian regions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Rabies is an incurable neglected zoonosis with worldwide distribution characterized as a lethal progressive acute encephalitis caused by a lyssavirus. Animal venoms and secretions have long been studied as new bioactive molecular sources, presenting a wide spectrum of biological effects, including new antiviral agents. Bufotenine, for instance, is an alkaloid isolated from the skin secretion of the anuran Rhinella jimi that inhibits cellular penetration by the rabies virus.
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