Rabies Design

Although the Chinese government classified rabies as a class B infectious disease requiring mandatory reporting when it established the National Notifiable Infectious Disease Reporting Information System (NIDRIS) in the 1950s, by 2020, rabies still ranked 4th among 39 reportable infectious diseases, just below HIV/AIDS (Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), tuberculosis, and viral hepatitis (Shen et al., 2023). In response, China aims to eradicate rabies by 2030 and has ensured a sufficient supply of rabies vaccines. The WHO’s Market Information for Access to Vaccines Project (MI4A) reports that “out of 24 manufacturers, 10 are located in China and six in India,” and “China is the world’s top producer and user of rabies vaccine, accounting for an estimated 84% of all rabies vaccine vials required in 2020” (WHO, 2020; Li et al., 2023). However, in 2023, China still had the second-highest number of rabies cases, with dogs accounting for 90%, and continued to use shot vaccinations instead of bait (Li et al., 2023; Shen et al., 2023). Thus, to better support the progress of rabies control, the project is supported with the perspective of product design.