The Prevalence of Rabies and Animal Bites During 2004 to 2009 in North of Iran

Rabies is an infectious viral disease of central nervous system. This disease is found in most countries of the world from a long time ago and nowadays it is one of the medical difficulties in developing countries. This disease due to its high mortality rate in humans and animals is one of the important zoonotic diseases. This study aimed to determine prevalence of animal bite cases in Northern provinces of Iran during 2004 to 2009. After sending samples to north unit of Pasteur Institute located in Amol city, all samples were analyzed by indirect immunofluorescent technique and in the case of observing negrobodies, samples were announced as positive. Also negative samples were injected to mice. During this 6 years period the highest number of positive cases of this disease was observed in 2006 and the lowest number was in 2009. Because rabies is endemic in wild life of Iran, infection of domestic animals is occurring repeatedly, also increasing population of stray dogs and developing statistics of animal bite cases and dissipation of rabies in most provinces of Iran, notifies a need to pay more attention on controlling this disease.