Rabies can be a disease of puppyhood

This brief report documents an interesting and a rare case of 10 week old male puppy who suddenly showed a change in his behavior (irritable, agitated, anorexic, and refusing feeds), bitten six humans, and was laboratory-confirmed as died due to rabies (Rapid antigen test and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction positive for rabies at the National Rabies Reference Laboratory, WHO collaborating Centre for Rabies Epidemiology, Centre for Arboviral and Zoonotic Diseases, National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi). All animal bite victims were timely provided postexposure prophylaxis for rabies who had shown sufficient seroconversion by IgG antirabies antibody using enzyme linked immunoassay (ELISA) and have been reported healthy. This case report reinforces the role of veterinarians/primary care physicians for strong suspicion of rabies encephalitis in puppies with behavioral or neurologic abnormalities and timely/appropriate rabies immunization of the animal bite victims. Shreds of evidence also focus that rabies in puppies younger than 3 months of age is grave and the risk of human beings contracting rabies from young puppies is of public health importance because of fatal consequences. Continuing medical education for primary care physicians and veterinarians, and outreach community public awareness campaigns should be regularly done to promote knowledge of pre-exposure/post-exposure prophylaxis, preventive measures, and animal bite management.