Rabies Dashboard

Rabies is a zoonotic, vaccine-preventable viral disease that causes damage to the brain and spinal cord in infected animals and humans. A zoonotic disease is a disease that can be transmitted between animals and humans. Rabies is nearly 100% fatal once symptoms appear.

The rabies virus is spread to humans and other animals through contact with saliva of infected animals. Bites or scratches or licks to wounds, grazes, broken skin, or to the lining of the mouth and nose are examples of unsafe contact. Human-to-human transmission is not known apart from rare cases associated with organ transplantation. Most human rabies cases in South Africa are linked to rabid domestic dogs.

As in animals, rabies in humans can present in the furious (hyperactive/agitated) or paralytic (dumb) forms. The common signs and symptoms of rabies include discomfort or pain at the site of the (previous) wound, fever, headache nausea and vomiting. This rapidly progress to signs of neurological dysfunction, which may include changed behavior, anxiety, confusion, and agitation.

People with rabies can also display hypersalivation, aerophobia (fear of air) and hydrophobia (fear of water). Some people may have localized weakness, paralytic syndromes, which eventually progress to coma and death. Rabies is a fatal infection in humans and only exceptionally rare cases of survival have been reported to date.

In South Africa, mostly domestic dogs are diagnosed with rabies. Other animals may also be infected with the virus, including domestic livestock (such as cattle and sheep) and wildlife (such as jackal). Rabies is not typically reported from small rodents such as mice and rats. It is also not reported from birds or reptiles. There are no rabies viruses reported in bats in South Africa. There are however, “rabies-like” viruses reported rarely in some species of bats and have related to two human rabies cases in South Africa in the past 40 years.

Explore our comprehensive Rabies Dashboard, providing real-time data and insights to track rabies in both the public and private healthcare sectors.