Epidemiological characteristics of deaths from rabies in Southern part Vietnam from 2012 to 2021

Abstract

Death from rabies is a concern in preventive medicine. We retrospective reviewed the number and characteristic of deaths from rabies in Southern region over 10 years (2012 - 2021). A total of 130 cases, accounted for 15.5% of number of rabies cases in Vietnam (839 cases) and had tendency to increase from 2018. The highest number of deaths was in Binh Phuoc (22 cases). Dog is the leading exposure cause (89.2%) and 3,8% from cat, of which 52.3% were pets. Death rate is about 70.8% for males, and 72.3% of cases is over 30 years old. The incubation period is usually 1 - 3 months (36.9%) and 10.8% over 1 year for hand and foot wounds. Typical symptoms are hydrophobia, aerophobia, photophobia with 79.2% of cases. Most cases (92.3%) died within 10 days of onset. There were 96.9% of deaths without vaccination after exposure and incomplete injection (3.1%) according to the protocol. Not having the right understanding of rabies, therefore subjective (86.9%) did not receive post-exposure prophylaxis or incorrect post- exposure prophylaxis, resulted in death. Death from rabies is a re-emerging public health problem in the South region, and it is necessary to focus on communicating to people properly about rabies to increase access to rabies vaccines after exposure.