Jemil Alemar Ali*
Rabies, a viral disease caused by lyssa virus of family Rhabdoviridae. It is a fatal zoonotic disease with worldwide occurrence and endemic in developing countries of Africa and Asia. The disease generally affects all warm-blooded animals, even though it is primarily a disease of dogs in Ethiopia and elsewhere in Africa. More than 95% of human rabies cases are due to bites by infected animals, predominantly from saliva of domestic dogs. Once clinical symptoms appear, it is almost 100% fatal, in which the disease is one of the major public-health burdens in Ethiopia. The country has the second most rabies related deaths in Africa. Although it is entirely preventable, nearly 3000 lives are lost every year in Ethiopia, with high economic burden and Daily Adjusted Life-Years (DALYs). Mass dog vaccination along with prompt administration of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) to bite victims, public awareness and ‘One-Health’ approach are successful elements for rabies prevention and control programmes. Low effort of animal rabies control by government and stake holders, lack of finance, limited rabies diagnostic capacity, neglect and lack of coordination and among others are the challenges holding back not to control a century long deadly disease in resource limited African countries like Ethiopia. Thus this paper provides a brief over view of the varied measures for Rabies prevention and control in animals and humans in Ethiopia
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