Rabies, One Death Every 10 Minutes

We vaccinate pets in the US for rabies and as a result, we have only 1-3 human cases of rabies per year. In other countries, human rabies cases are far more common. In fact, around the world, 55,000 people die of rabies every year. The number 55,000 is overwhelming, and to make it worse, most are children. More than 100 children die every day in our world from rabies. This is one person dying of rabies every 10 minutes.

We can do our part by vaccinating, and we should, but it is not safe to vaccinate pets every year for rabies, and perhaps not as often as every 3 years. Over the next few Caring for Pet entries, we’ll talk about what can happen if we give pets too much vaccine or vaccinate them too often.