Moving from Rabies Research to Rabies Control: Lessons from India
نویسندگان
چکیده
BACKGROUND Despite the availability of effective interventions and public recognition of the severity of the problem, rabies continues to suffer neglect by programme planners in India and other low and middle income countries. We investigate whether this state of 'policy impasse' is due to, at least in part, the research community not catering to the information needs of the policy makers. METHODS #ENTITYSTARTX00026; FINDINGS Our objective was to review the research output on rabies from India and examine its alignment with national policy priorities. A systematic literature review of all rabies research articles published from India between 2001 and 2011 was conducted. The distribution of conducted research was compared to the findings of an earlier research prioritization exercise. It was found that a total of 93 research articles were published from India since 2001, out of which 61% consisted of laboratory based studies focussing on rabies virus. Animals were the least studied group, comprising only 8% of the research output. One third of the articles were published in three journals focussing on vaccines and infectious disease epidemiology and the top 4 institutions (2 each from the animal and human health sectors) collectively produced 49% of the national research output. Biomedical research related to development of new interventions dominated the total output as opposed to the identified priority domains of socio-politic-economic research, basic epidemiological research and research to improve existing interventions. CONCLUSION The paper highlights the gaps between rabies research and policy needs, and makes the case for developing a strategic research agenda that focusses on rabies control as an expected outcome.
منابع مشابه
Eliminating Dog-Mediated Rabies in Sikkim, India: A 10-Year Pathway to Success for the SARAH Program
A third of the world rabies burden is in India. The Sikkim Anti-Rabies and Animal Health (SARAH) program is the first state-wide rabies program in India and demonstrates a successful One Health model of dog-mediated rabies elimination. The SARAH program was created in 2006 as a collaboration between the Government of Sikkim and international non-government organizations-Vets Beyond Borders and ...
متن کاملRabies in the 21st Century
Why are 50,000–55,000 people dying from rabies worldwide each year, with 25,000–30,000 human deaths in India alone and over 3 billion people continuing to be at risk of rabies virus infection in over 100 countries in the 21 century? These are astonishing numbers, particularly as they represent individuals, a large proportion of whom are children, who have been attacked or are likely to be attac...
متن کاملRecent Advances in Prevention and Control of Rabies
1WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Rabies and Department of Neurovirology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore 560029, India 2Global Alliance for Rabies Control, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66502, USA 3Unit Lyssavirus Dynamics and Host Adaptation and WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Rabies, Institut Pasteur, 7572...
متن کاملThe Road to Dog Rabies Control and Elimination—What Keeps Us from Moving Faster?
Rabies, a vaccine preventable neglected tropical disease, still claims an estimated 35,000-60,000 human lives annually. The international community, with more than 100 endemic countries, has set a global target of 0 human deaths from dog-transmitted rabies by 2030. While it has been proven in several countries and regions that elimination of rabies as a public health problem is feasible and too...
متن کامل