Rabies and the missing deaths: Why do India’s official numbers differ so sharply from estimates? | Explained
India faces a significant discrepancy between official rabies death counts and independent estimates, with the ICMR suggesting thousands more deaths than the government's surveillance system. The lack of a national notification mandate for rabies complicates efforts to track and eliminate the disease by 2030.
Why it matters
Accurate data is essential for public health policy; the current underreporting hinders effective vaccination and control strategies.
The story so far: India is working towards eliminating dog-mediated human rabies by 2030. Yet the country does not have a single, comprehensive national count of human rabies deaths. While the Health Ministry’s disease surveillance system recorded 54 deaths in 2024, an ICMR-led study estimates that 5,726 people die of rabies in India every year.
Rabies is not a notifiable disease nationwide. Unlike diseases for which there is a clearly established national notification mechanism covering every State and Union Territory, rabies notification has historically depended on State-level notification requirements and the disease surveillance system.
The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has been working to make human rabies a notifiable disease across the country. Communications have been sent to States to notify the disease under the relevant State legislation.
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