Ecological and Socioeconomic Factors in the Occurrence of Rabies: A Forgotten Scenario
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This is a great opinion piece on rabies and raises very pertinent questions in the role of ecological and socioeconomic factors in the prevention and control of rabies. It would have been great if this opinion was focussed on countries identified to have high rates of rabies and the discussion of socio-economic and ecological factors focussed on conditions specific to the identified countries but I understand this is an opinion piece and may have less strict requirements.
Some minor edits for you to consider.
Line 15: this statement needs changing –”where rabid dogs are the norm”. It is somehow over the board and an exaggeration.
Line 78 – 80 . The word supposed is wrongly used. Did you mean reported? “The burden 78 of rabies in LMICs is supposed to be underestimated, which is attributed to the under reporting of cases of rabies associated with the lack of understanding of ecological perspective of occurrence and transmission of rabies [27,28]
Author Response
This is a great opinion piece on rabies and raises very pertinent questions in the role of ecological and socioeconomic factors in the prevention and control of rabies. It would have been great if this opinion was focused on countries identified to have high rates of rabies and the discussion of socio-economic and ecological factors focused on conditions specific to the identified countries, but I understand this is an opinion piece and may have less strict requirements.
In this paper we tried to show the general overview rather than specific country. Thank you for your understanding.
Some minor edits for you to consider.
Line 15: this statement needs changing –”where rabid dogs are the norm”. It is somehow over the board and an exaggeration.
We have changed as suggested by next reviewer.
Line 78 – 80 . The word supposed is wrongly used. Did you mean reported? “The burden of rabies in LMICs is supposed to be underestimated, which is attributed to the under reporting of cases of rabies associated with the lack of understanding of ecological perspective of occurrence and transmission of rabies [27,28]
We mean the actual burden in LMICs is underestimated which is due to under-reporting of cases of rabies. Now we have removed the word supposed.
Reviewer 2 Report
There is a paragraph that has compelling aseverations at the end of the discussion, by mentioning the expression "All what is needed is the 206 national governments and local health authorities’ commitment to making rabies control a priority and keeping the infrastructure in place to regularly vaccinate the dog population against the disease"
It is compelling, because the way it is written, it seems like measures are simple, one-sided and not as complex as in the manuscript is explained. Rabies is zoonotic diseases needing a gkkobal health approach and multilevel interventions including community participation, perhaps media involvment, awareness and also of course, the government involvement.
Please take time to clarify ideas and rephrase the paragraph.
Author Response
There is a paragraph that has compelling asseverations at the end of the discussion, by mentioning the expression "All what is needed is the national governments and local health authorities’ commitment to making rabies control a priority and keeping the infrastructure in place to regularly vaccinate the dog population against the disease"
It is compelling, because the way it is written, it seems like measures are simple, one-sided and not as complex as in the manuscript is explained. Rabies is zoonotic diseases needing a global health approach and multilevel interventions including community participation, perhaps media involvement, awareness and also of course, the government involvement.
Please take time to clarify ideas and rephrase the paragraph.
In this paragraph we tried to show one control way that is vaccination/immunization. We are not talking about the whole rabies control. We have changed the structure of the sentence and make it clearer. Thank you.
Reviewer 3 Report
I have just some suggestions that are included in the pdf file attached.
the article is excellent and the subject is of great interesse.
Congratulations!!
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
We have addressed the comments that were highlighted in the pdf.
Thank you.
Reviewer 4 Report
In this report authors have presented a review of ecological and socioeconomic factors in the occurrence of rabies. Currently, several articles describing rabies occurrence, including literature reviews are available in the recent publications. Therefore, I would expect this article more as a metanalysis of literature, meaning that parts on ecology and socioeconomic factors should be extended. In this way it is more like recommendations of the author how to reduce the rabies occurrence in LMIC. Part on sylvatic cycle of rabies (except part dealing with vampire bat, which is not the only one harboring the rabies virus) is almost completely neglected. More detailed and critical discussion about each factor is needed. Explanation on the role of dog consumption in epidemiology of rabies should be more elaborated, differentiating the role of butchering and eating of cooked meat. Minor errors like placing USA as the only country outside North America and Europe should be corrected. I suggest major revision of the paper.
Author Response
In this report authors have presented a review of ecological and socioeconomic factors in the occurrence of rabies. Currently, several articles describing rabies occurrence, including literature reviews are available in the recent publications. Therefore, I would expect this article more as a metanalysis of literature, meaning that parts on ecology and socioeconomic factors should be extended.
This is an opinion paper and we tried to show the general overview of ecological and socioeconomic factors which are often neglected. Being an opinion paper, we believe that the current content is enough. Thank you for the suggestion.
In this way it is more like recommendations of the author how to reduce the rabies occurrence in LMIC. Part on sylvatic cycle of rabies (except part dealing with vampire bat, which is not the only one harboring the rabies virus) is almost completely neglected. More detailed and critical discussion about each factor is needed. Explanation on the role of dog consumption in epidemiology of rabies should be more elaborated, differentiating the role of butchering and eating of cooked meat.
The role of dog slaughtering, handling, and consumption in the transmission of rabies is poorly understood. We have added this in the manuscript.
Minor errors like placing USA as the only country outside North America and Europe should be corrected. I suggest major revision of the paper.
We have corrected this error.
Thank you.
Round 2
Reviewer 4 Report
My apologies for overlooking the fact that article is classified as opinion. I would still add the importance of oral vaccination campaigns in foxes and jackals in Europe. These have led to complete reduction of cases in sylvatic cycle.
Author Response
Thank you for understanding. We have updated about the Sylvatic cycle and importance of oral vaccination campaigns in foxes and jackals in Europe.
