EPIDEMIOLOGICAL ASPECTS, CONTROL AND PROPHYLAXIS OF THE RABIES VIRUS: A LITERATURE REVIEW (Atena Editora)

Abstract

Rabies is a serious acute infectious disease with 100% lethality, it is caused by the Lyssavirus genus virus, belonging to the Rabhdoviridae family, which affects mammals, and in man, it is responsible for causing progressive and acute encephalitis, seen as a disease considered of extremely important for public health. Given this context, this work aimed to describe, according to the scientific literature, the main implications for the rabies virus today, the forms of contagion, epidemiology and prophylaxis. Therefore, this is a cross-sectional, descriptive and exploratory literature review, with a quati-qualitative approach, where the following guiding question was formulated: "What are the approaches and implications of the theme from the perspective of scientific literature?" In this study, the PubMed (National Library of Medicine) and VHL (Virtual Health Library) portals were consulted, using the indexed descriptors: “Rabies Virus”, “Epidemiological Profile” and “Health Surveillance” with the inclusion criteria: studies available in a time frame from 2012 to 2022, in Portuguese, English and Spanish. Thus, six articles were selected for this study. In addition, it is understood that the rabies virus has not been eradicated, it is that there are sporadic and accidental contamination rates, where exposure to humans can be lethal, which makes it important for public health and relevant within the perspective addressed in this study due to the few works listing this theme within the current scenario.