Rabies deaths recorded in India far lesser than estimates from ICMR-led study
A significant discrepancy exists between India's official government surveillance data on rabies deaths and recent ICMR-led research estimates. While government systems report fewer than 100 annual deaths, a Lancet study suggests the actual toll is closer to 5,726, highlighting critical gaps in national disease reporting and surveillance infrastructure.
Why it matters
The massive underreporting of rabies deaths complicates India's goal to eliminate dog-mediated rabies by 2030 and underscores the urgent need for better data collection and public health intervention.
In 2025, India recorded 55 deaths by malaria, 131 deaths by dengue, and 27 deaths by kala-azar (visceral leishmaniasis or black fever), according to Union Health Ministry data, whereas there is no single comparable and comprehensive national measure of its annual human rabies mortality, even as the country looks to eliminate dog-mediated human rabies by the year 2030.
While a community-based study led by researchers from the Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Epidemiology (ICMR-NIE) and published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases recently estimated that 5,726 people die of rabies in India every year, the Health Ministry’s Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme-Integrated Health Information Platform (IDSP-IHIP) system reported 21 deaths by rabies in 2022, 50 in 2023, and 54 in 2024.
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