Mission Rabies App: Detect Dogs That Have Been Vaccinated Against Rabies

A study shows that rabies can be wiped-out from street dogs in India using a new smartphone app. See how this newest innovation can help eliminate rabies among the man's bestfriends.

Science Daily reports that researchers are using this app to track free-roaming street dogs if they are vaccinated against rabies. Issued in the journal BMC Infectious Diseases, the study was led by researchers from the Royal School of Veterinary Studies at the University of Edinburgh.

"We have shown that mobile technology can help to monitor the efforts of a large scale vaccination of free roaming dogs in real time. This allows us to identify areas where vaccination needs to be increased to meet the 70 percent threshold and cut the risk of the disease being passed to people," Dr. Richard Mellanby, a Welcome Trust Clinical Fellow at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, explained.

This monitoring can enable the veterinarians to immunize 70 percent of the dog population in the city of Ranchi. They actually vaccinated 6,000 dogs in the 18 regions of the city of Ranchi in India. The researchers used the bespoke smartphone app. It is called the Mission Rabies App that is designed for the researchers to directly download information about animals that are vaccinated as well as their exact location. The researchers were able to survey the vaccinated and unmarked, unvaccinated and marked dogs.

According to Medical News Today, there are about 26,000 people died from rabies in 2010 -- most deaths occurred in Africa and India.

Rabies is a viral disease transmitted through a  saliva of infected dogs and other animals. The symptoms of rabies include excessive salivation, photophobia, fever, nausea, anxiety, confusion, nightmares, priapism, headache, hallucinations and fear of water. There is no treatment for the disease. However, a shot or also known as rabies immune globulin is prescribed to prevent the virus from infecting the person.