Mad Dogs and Meerkats: A History of Resurgent Rabies in Southern Africa

Chronology

Chronology Some Key Events in the History of Rabies in Southern Africa 1795 Britain’s first occupation of the (Dutch) Cape Colony. 1797 John Barrow arrived in the Cape; he discussed rabies in his memoirs, Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa. 1806 Britain reannexed and occupied the Cape. 1827 Missionary Stephen Kay described a suspected case of hydrophobia in the Eastern Cape. 1857 David Livingstone discussed rabies in Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa. 1857 Natal Witness reported cases of hydrophobia in Africans near Pietermaritzburg. 1885 Louis Pasteur publicized his discovery of a postexposure antirabies vaccine in Paris. 1888 Rabies outbreak in Barotseland (Zambia). 1893 Canine rabies outbreak in Port Elizabeth, Cape Colony. Alexander Edington began preparing the Pasteur vaccine. 1901 Rabies outbreak in Barotseland spilled over into Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). 1902–13 Southern Rhodesia canine rabies epizootic. 1910 Union of South Africa. Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute (Pretoria) became the center for rabies research. xiv | Chronology November 1928 Deaths of Burger and Swanepoel. First biomedically confirmed human deaths from rabies. Contracted from a yellow mongoose. 1930s Attempts to eradicate or control mongoose rabies by gassing their underground warrens. Remained state policy until 1980s. 1936 Rabies discovered in the Okavango Delta, Bechuanaland Protectorate (now Botswana). Probably came from the Zambian Copperbelt. Slowly spread southward. June 1950 Canine rabies reached South Africa from the Bechuanaland Protectorate. Affected jackals as well as domestic dogs. September 1950 Canine rabies identified in Southern Rhodesia. September 1951 Southern Rhodesia introduced compulsory canine vaccination using Flury LEP vaccine, designed in the United States. June 1952 Introduction of compulsory canine vaccination in affected parts of South Africa. July 1961 Arrival of canine rabies in Zululand and Natal from Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique). February 1970 Death of Duvenhage; eventual isolation of the Duvenhage rabies-related virus. 1977–86 Kudu rabies epidemic in South West Africa (now Namibia). 1986 Rabies crossed from Natal into the Transkei Homeland. 1987 Allerton Rabies Laboratory set up for Natal cases. April 1994 African National Congress (ANC) elected to power. 1997 Rabies outbreak among African wild dogs in Madikwe Game Reserve. 2005–7 Rabies epidemic, caused by dogs, Limpopo Province. 2000+ Ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic leads to growing dog abandonment; unvaccinated feral packs of dogs remain a major pubic health problem in KwaZulu-Natal. ...