Abstract / Summary
Rabies remains one of the deadliest zoonotic diseases worldwide and continues to represent a major public health challenge in North Africa. Despite longstanding national control programmes, comprehensive national assessments integrating human and animal rabies surveillance within a One Health framework remain limited in Algeria. This study aimed to describe the epidemiology of human and animal rabies and to assess selected surveillance indicators and rabies control activities in Algeria during 2018–2024. A retrospective descriptive study was conducted using official national surveillance data obtained from the Algerian Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Human and animal rabies cases, outbreak foci, affected animal species, geographical distribution, vaccination activities, healthcare-seeking behaviour following animal exposure, and bite characteristics were analysed. Descriptive statistics and exploratory Spearman’s rank correlation analyses were performed using R software (version 4.4.1). Between 2018 and 2024, Algeria reported 101 human rabies deaths, with 11–20 deaths annually and a persistent predominance of males (male-to-female ratio: 2.5–14.0). The Tell region accounted for 56.4% of reported human cases, whereas the Sahara region accounted for only a limited proportion. Dogs were the principal source of reported human rabies exposure and accounted for 55% of reported animal rabies cases. Delayed healthcare-seeking increased after 2020, reaching 73.3% in 2022 and 76.9% in 2023, and remained high at 66.7% in 2024. During the study period, the national veterinary surveillance system recorded 4,253 reported animal rabies cases and 3,040 outbreak foci. Reported animal rabies cases showed a strong positive correlation with outbreak foci (Spearman’s ρ = 0.81), whereas a weak negative correlation was observed between annual human and animal rabies cases (ρ = −0.03). Vaccination of domestic carnivores decreased between 2018 and 2020 before increasing thereafter, and 47,994 domestic carnivores were vaccinated during the 2024 World Rabies Day campaign. Rabies remains endemic in Algeria despite ongoing control efforts. Strengthening mass dog vaccination, integrated One Health surveillance, responsible dog ownership, sustainable management of free-roaming dog populations, public awareness, and timely access to post-exposure prophylaxis are essential to support the WHO–WOAH–FAO Zero by 30 strategy.