Rabies is a vaccine-preventable disease, and it is still a significant public health problem in many countries of Asia and Africa, even though safe, effective vaccines for both human and veterinary use exist. Most of the   55 000 deaths from rabies reported annually around the world occur in Asia and Africa, and most of the victims are children: 30–50% of the reported cases of rabies—and therefore deaths—occur in children under 15 years of age. The main route of transmission is the bites of rabid dogs. Most of the children who die from rabies were not treated or did not receive adequate post-exposure treatment. Although the efficacy and safety of modern cell culture vaccines have been recognized, some Asian countries still produce and use nervous tissue vaccines, which are less effective, require repeated visits to the hospital and often have severe side-effects. Moreover, these patients do not receive the necessary rabies immunoglobulin, because of a perennial global shortage and because of its high price, so that it is unaffordable in countries where canine rabies is endemic.

Due to complete absence of any successful medical treatment for clinical rabies and the horrific nature of the disease, most rabies victims die at home rather than being admitted to a hospital in abysmal conditions. These circumstances add to the notorious lack of surveillance data. Underestimating the health implications of rabies leads many high ranking decision-makers in public health and animal health to perceive rabies as a rare disease of humans resulting from a bite of an uneconomically important animal (the dog). Therefore, rabies usually falls between two stools and is not dealt with appropriately either by the Ministry of Health or the Ministry of Agriculture.