The Epidemiology of Rabies in Indonesia

Rabies was first reported in the province of West Java, Indonesia in 1889, more than a decade before Negri discovered the diagnostic inclusion body so characteristic of the disease. The disease had spread through the Indonesian archipellago and had infected 20 out of 27 provinces by the beginning of 1983. The domesticated canine species is the main reservoir of the disease. Wild life Rabies in so far limited to two species only, musang (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus); one case was reported in West Java in 1958 and another one was reported in Banda Aceh in 1975, while a deer was confirmed in S. Kalimantan in 1983. The estimated population is of around 7,000,000 animals of which only a small part is protected against the disease.