Rabies Postexposure Prophylaxis for Travelers Injured by Nonhuman Primates, Marseille, France, 2001–2014 - Volume 21, Number 8—August 2015 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal - CDC

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Rabies Postexposure Prophylaxis for Travelers Injured by Nonhuman Primates, Marseille, France, 2001–2014 - Volume 21, Number 8—August 2015 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal - CDC

Volume 21, Number 8—August 2015

Dispatch

Rabies Postexposure Prophylaxis for Travelers Injured by Nonhuman Primates, Marseille, France, 2001–2014

On This Page

• The Study
• Conclusions
• Suggested Citation

Figures

• Figure

Tables

• Table 1
• Table 2

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Agathe Blaise, Philippe Parola, Philippe Brouqui, and Philippe Gautret 

Author affiliations: Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire Méditerranée Infection, Marseille, France (A. Blaise, P. Parola, P. Brouqui, P. Gautret); Aix Marseille Université, Unité de Recherche sur les Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales Emergentes, Marseille (P. Parola, P. Brouqui, P. Gautret)

Suggested citation for this article

Abstract

Most exposures of residents of Marseille to nonhuman primates occurred among unvaccinated adult travelers to Southeast Asia within the first 10 days of their arrival at 2 major tourist locations in Thailand and 1 in Indonesia. A small proportion of travelers received rabies immunoglobulin in the country of exposure.

Rabies is estimated to cause >60,000 human deaths worldwide annually on the basis of a probability decision-tree approach; primarily resulting from dog bites, the disease is of public health concern in most countries in Asia and Africa (1). Nonhuman primates (NHPs) are not primary reservoirs of rabies; nevertheless, 159 reports of rabies in NHPs, of which 134 were laboratory-confirmed cases, have been retrieved from various sources in South America, Africa, and Asia (2). This total is probably underestimated because weak rules pertaining to rabies surveillance in some countries, such as not requiring reports of rabidity in all species, are likely to result in underreporting of rabid NHPs. Cases of rabies in humans after injury by NHPs were also reported in 25 persons, mostly in Brazil (2). Although rarely reported, documented cases of rabies infections in NHPs and subsequent transmission to humans do occur, warranting the need for rabies postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) after NHP exposure in countries to which rabies is endemic. The epidemiology of NHP-related injuries has been described in case reports or small cohorts of patients only (3,4). Here, we describe the epidemiology of 135 cases of NHP-related injuries in persons seen in the Marseille Rabies Treatment Centre in Marseille, France.

Dr. Blaise is a physician who specializes in infectious diseases. Her research interests include rabies and other zoonoses.

Acknowledgment

We thank Marie Pittaco for editing the manuscript.

References

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Figure

• Figure. Number of injuries to humans by nonhuman primates requiring rabies postexposure prophylaxis, Marseille Rabies Treatment Centre, Marseille, France, 2001–2014. A) Logarithmic regression was used to calculate a line of best...

Tables

• Table 1. Demographic, vaccination status, place of exposure, and travel characteristics of 135 persons injured by nonhuman primates requiring rabies postexposure prophylaxis, Marseilles, France, 2001–2014
• Table 2. Detailed place of exposure of 73 travelers injured by nonhuman primates in Thailand and Indonesia requiring rabies postexposure prophylaxis, Marseille, France, 2001–2014

Suggested citation for this article: Blaise A, Parola P, Brouqui P, Gautret P. Rabies postexposure prophylaxis for travelers injured by nonhuman primates, Marseille, France, 2001–2014. Emerg Infect Dis. 2015 Aug [date cited]. http://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid2108.150346

DOI: 10.3201/eid2108.150346