Surveillance Opportunities and the Need for Intersectoral Collaboration on Rabies in Sri Lanka

Area of Science:

• Veterinary Epidemiology
• Public Health
• One Health Surveillance

Background:

• Sri Lanka aims to eliminate human rabies through canine rabies control programs.
• Integrated surveillance between human and animal health sectors is crucial for rabies elimination.
• Understanding virus movement among domestic animals, people, and wildlife is essential.

Purpose of the Study:

• To synthesize multispecies rabies surveillance data in Sri Lanka from 2005-2014.
• To assess needs and opportunities for a One Health approach to rabies surveillance.
• To identify challenges in current rabies surveillance systems.

Main Methods:

• Descriptive epidemiological review of surveillance data from 2005 to 2014.
• Analysis of data from three government organizations involved in rabies surveillance.
• Assessment of information completeness, standardization, and accessibility.

Main Results:

• Observed a decline in human rabies cases and endemic, stable dog rabies cases.
• Identified a correlation between human density and human/animal rabies occurrences.
• Highlighted significant gaps in understanding rabies trends in livestock and wildlife.

Conclusions:

• Current rabies surveillance data in Sri Lanka lacks standardization, consistency, and completeness.
• Barriers include lack of population data, sampling biases, and reliance on clinical diagnosis.
• Harmonization of diagnostic and information management standards, and equitable access to diagnostics are needed for rabies elimination.