FRANK D. ROYLANCE
Rabies overseas makes adopting dogs iffy
ATLANTA: Federal health officials are warning Americans traveling in countries where rabies is common not to adopt stray animals without first obtaining the required immunizations for import to the U.S. A dog adopted last year by a serviceman in Iraq and shipped home in June with 23 other dogs and two cats became ill at the airport in New Jersey. It was hospitalized, euthanized three days later and diagnosed with rabies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and New Jersey officials found that none of the animals had a verifiable history of vaccination 30 days before exposure to the infected dog. Investigators tracked the other animals to 16 states, ordered them vaccinated and quarantined for six months. Thirteen people had to undergo rabies shots. Once common in the U.S., only 79 cases of canine rabies were reported here in 2006. But the disease kills about 55,000 people a year in parts of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. Most U.S. cases today occur in unvaccinated, imported dogs.
