Fig 1.
a) map depicting the location of Namibia in Africa (right) and the boundaries and names of the Namibian districts and the veterinary cordon fence (dark grey). The color scale indicates the average rabies incidence per 100,000 people and per region. The locations of the laboratories, i.e. the CVL in Windhoek (a) and in Ondangwa (b) is shown. The absolute number of cases per regions and the rabies incidence per 100,000 people is also provided in brackets. Below: temporal trend (b) and the distribution per age class and gender (c) of human rabies cases in Namibia, 2011–2017.
Fig 2.
Surveillance intensity (number of animals submitted for testing per 100,000 inhabitants per year) per region (a). To the right: Absolute numbers of submissions to the laboratories in Windhoek and Ondangwa per distance (b). Because the area as a potential origin of submissions increases with radial distance, the numbers of submissions were standardized and expressed per 100sqkm (c).
Fig 3.
Spatial distribution of rabies surveillance data in Namibia, 2011–2017.
Namibian land use is indicated on the map (left), and the proportion of submissions in relation to land use for kudu, dogs, cattle and other wildlife is indicated (right).
Table 1.
Temporal distribution of rabies surveillance in Namibia for species with total samples above 40.
The laboratory results for all samples submitted for testing (N) and the positives thereof (n+) for the years 2011–2017, stratified by geographic region (north, south) and season are shown. For the details of the species encompassing other, please see S2 Table.
Table 2.
Region-stratified logistic regression analysis.
Fig 4.
Rabies surveillance in dogs: Rabies cases (red dots), reported rabies suspects (orange dots) and dog samples tested negative (blue dots).
The vast majority of rabies cases in dogs were reported from the NCAs north of the veterinary fence (n = 600), while in the remaining part of Namibia only 44 cases were confirmed. The underlying shading represents the relative human population density with darker colors indicating a higher density. Below: Enlargement of the area in the NCAs with the highest numbers of rabies cases. Main roads (blue, pink) are indicated. To the right: charts showing the absolute number of rabies cases or rabies suspects per density class (left y-axis) and the density of rabies cases or rabies suspects per km² per respective density class (right y-axis).
Fig 5.
Spatial display of surveillance data (2011–2017) for livestock animals (left), kudus (right).
Densities of kudus and livestock are indicated. Below: charts showing the absolute number of rabies cases or rabies suspects per density class (left y-axis) and the density of rabies cases or rabies suspects per square kilometer per respective density class (right y-axis).