28th September is observed as World Rabies Day. World Rabies Day is celebrated annually to raise awareness about rabies prevention and to highlight progress in defeating this horrifying disease. Rabies is a vaccine-preventable viral disease. The first course of rabies treatment was administered under the supervision of Louis Pasteur, more than a century ago. Since then, rabies vaccines have always been among the first to benefit from progress in production and control. Rabies is a deadly virus spread to people from the saliva of infected animals. The rabies virus is usually transmitted through a bite. Animals most likely to transmit rabies  include  coyotes, foxes, raccoons and skunks. Rabies attacks the brain and spinal cord. If it is not prevented, it will cause death. Any mammal can get rabies. It can only be passed to another animal or a person through saliva

Infection causes tens of thousands of deaths every year, mainly in Asia and Africa.

Rabies vaccine is given to people at high risk of rabies to protect them if they are exposed. It can also prevent the disease if it is given to a person after they have been exposed. Rabies vaccine is made from killed rabies virus. It cannot cause rabies.

Vaccinating your pet not only protects him from getting rabies, it protects him if he bites someone. Thus getting your pet vaccinated is a must. Dogs are the main source of human rabies deaths, contributing up to 99% of all rabies transmissions to humans.