India records huge gap between official rabies deaths and research estimates

India's official rabies death records fall far short of scientific study estimates, exposing major gaps in tracking the fatal disease. A recent community-based study led by the Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Epidemiology and published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases estimates that 5,726 people die of rabies in India every year. In contrast, the Health Ministry's Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme-Integrated Health Information Platform reported 21 rabies deaths in 2022, 50 in 2023, and 54 in 2024.

Official Data Systems

Another official system, the Registrar General of India's Medical Certification of Cause of Death, recorded 66 medically certified rabies deaths in 2022 and 271 in 2023. However, this system covered only 22.3% of registered deaths in 2022 and 22.0% in 2023 because it only tracks medically certified cases. A senior Health Ministry official noted that the datasets use different methods and highlight a large gap between reported surveillance deaths and estimated mortality. For comparison, India recorded 55 deaths by malaria, 131 deaths by dengue, and 27 deaths by kala-azar in 2025.

Survey Findings

The ICMR study surveyed 3,37,808 people across 78,807 households in 60 districts across 15 States. Researchers used these figures, laboratory data, and a decision-tree model to estimate that India sees about 9.1 million animal bites every year, including about 5.6 million dog bites. The study also revealed that about one in five dog-bite victims did not get the anti-rabies vaccine, while only 66.2% received at least three doses, and only about one in 10 eligible victims received passive immunisation. Nirmal Kumar Ganguly, a medical scientist and former ICMR chief, stated that a lack of consolidated data is a challenge in rabies eradication since cases often occur in unmeasurable areas.

Context

Rabies is a viral disease that attacks the central nervous system and is almost always fatal once symptoms appear, though it is entirely preventable with timely vaccination and care. The World Health Organization estimates that domestic dogs cause up to 99% of human rabies transmission, with India accounting for a large share of global and Asian deaths. India aims to eliminate dog-mediated human rabies by the year 2030 through steps like dog vaccination and prompt post-exposure care.