Current Issues of Rabies Prevention in Japan

Abstract

Rabies is a typical zoonosis directly transmitted to neural tissues by bites and shows acute progressive encephalomyelitis due to lyssaviruses. "One Health" is a key word for the control and prevention of rabies. Bats are the principal reservoir hosts for most lyssaviruses, but rabies lyssavirus (RABV) was successfully distributed among the meso-carnivores in the world represented by canids, raccoons, skunks, mongooses, ferret badgers and as much as only bats of the New World. In Japan rabies has not been reported from 1958, except three human imported cases of 1970 and 2006.