Background/Objectives

Sri Lanka has been targeted zero rabies by the end of 2025. Towards the elimination, the country needs more effective, evidence-based strategies and efforts to achieve its ultimate goal. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review of scientific literatures and data to assess current human and animal rabies control and prevention strategies in Sri Lanka.

Methods

We compiled documents regarding current and previous rabies control and prevention activities implemented in the entire country of Sri Lanka. The documents included published literatures issued between 1946 and 2020 from both online databases and university library in Sri Lanka. All the collected documents were screened based on the PRISMA statement and categorized into several types of rabies control and prevention strategies. Official reports including epidemiological data in Sri Lanka were also filed in order to analyze the current trend of rabies control and prevention in the nation.

Results

As of end December 2020, we found 119 scientific literatures regarding rabies control and prevention in Sri Lanka. Human rabies deaths in Sri Lanka have been reduced for the last half century by successful implementation of mass dog vaccination, animal birth control and awareness raising activities. However, the country is still facing on sporadic rabies cases, limited dog vaccination coverage and insufficient dog population management in the district level. Despite the nationwide standard of dog to human ratio of 1:8, there are huge disparities or unknown of dog ecology in regions. Awareness raising including has been enhancing for both general public and school children. Surveillance system is poorly operated so that simultaneous data analysis for decision-making is impractical.

Conclusions

In order to achieve nationwide rabies elimination, it is highly recommended to implement more effective rabies control and prevention activities and build adequate scientific evidences.

中文翻译：

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斯里兰卡消除狂犬病的公共卫生意义：系统评价

背景/目标

斯里兰卡的目标是到 2025 年底狂犬病为零。为了消除狂犬病，该国需要更有效的、以证据为基础的战略和努力来实现其最终目标。因此，我们对科学文献和数据进行了系统审查，以评估斯里兰卡当前的人类和动物狂犬病控制和预防策略。

方法

我们汇编了有关当前和以前在斯里兰卡全国实施的狂犬病控制和预防活动的文件。这些文件包括 1946 年至 2020 年间来自斯里兰卡在线数据库和大学图书馆的已发表文献。所有收集的文件都根据 PRISMA 声明进行了筛选，并分为几种类型的狂犬病控制和预防策略。斯里兰卡还提交了包括流行病学数据在内的官方报告，以分析该国当前狂犬病控制和预防的趋势。

结果

截至 2020 年 12 月，我们在斯里兰卡发现了 119 篇有关狂犬病控制和预防的科学文献。在过去的半个世纪里，通过成功实施大规模犬类疫苗接种、动物节育和提高认识活动，斯里兰卡的人类狂犬病死亡人数有所减少。然而，该国仍面临散发狂犬病病例、犬只疫苗接种覆盖率有限以及区级犬群管理不足等问题。尽管全国犬人比标准为1:8，但各地区犬类生态存在巨大差异或未知。提高公众和学童的意识，包括一直在提高。监控系统运行不良，无法同时进行数据分析以进行决策。

结论

为实现全国范围内消灭狂犬病，强烈建议开展更有效的狂犬病控制和预防活动，并建立足够的科学证据。