Travel Alert: Rabies In Haiti

Because individuals from our area travel to Haiti from time to time and as worldwide travel picks back up, we here at consider Haiti want to make you aware of a recent CDC health alert related to rabies in Haiti.

Haiti has been experiencing an increase in rabid dogs and a shortage of rabies post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP).

• 64% of dogs tested in Haiti from July-November 2020 were positive for rabies, compared to 10% of dogs tested from January-June 2020.

• In February 2021, CDC learned of a general lack of availability of rabies PEP in Haiti.

CDC Reccomendations:

• Travelers to Haiti should consider getting rabies pre-exposure vaccination, per ACIP recommendations, before they travel.

  • The pre-exposure rabies vaccine series is given as 3 shots over 3-4 weeks. (BCHHS can administer this vaccine series. Travelers should make a Foreign Travel Clinic appointment – see info below.)

  • People who receive the complete pre-exposure rabies vaccine series still require immediate medical attention after any animal bite or scratch, but maybe partially protected until they get medical attention.

• Travelers to Haiti should avoid all contact with dogs and cats while in Haiti.

• All Americans with suspected rabies exposures in Haiti should evacuate to the US (or another area) to initiate PEP.

• Travelers returning to the US who experienced a dog bite in Haiti on or after July 1, 2020, should seek immediate medical care and assessment for the need for PEP.

• Travelers who initiated PEP in Haiti may have received the expired vaccine. Extra care should be taken to understand which vaccine product they received and whether it was an expired product. Expedited titer checks should be considered for such individuals, with blood draws as early as immediately following the 4th PEP dose.

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