An epidemiological warning is issued in Mexico for several cases of human rabies

The health authorities are monitoring nine cases of people who were in contact with an infected dog.

The Mexican Ministry of Health issued an epidemiological notice on Tuesday in the face of several cases of human rabies detected in the last month.

Through the National Committee for Epidemiological Surveillance, the authorities Health authorities reported a recent case of rabies detected in a dog in the state of Sonora, therefore nine people who had contact with the animal are under follow-up.

A contagion by urban fauna in Nayarit derived from the attack on a person by a cat without a history of vaccination is also confirmed, and two confirmed cases are reported (one by laboratory and another by epidemiological association), and one probable, followed by the notification of three more suspects in January 2023 for assault by bat.

The epidemiological notice is addressed to all medical units, epidemiological surveillance and the National Network of Public Health Laboratories, and establishes the operational definitions of suspected, probable, confirmed and ruled out cases, based on the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

Regarding the infected dog in Sonora, the authorities indicated that “the antigenic characterization identified is the V7 variant associated with the gray fox, which confirms that the dog was attacked by a wildlife animal that infected it with rabies.”

According to WHO, dogs are responsible for up to 99% of human rabies cases globally.