Challenges and advances in anti-rabies vaccine development in sub-saharan Africa

Zoonotic infection, such as rabies disease, causes devastating brain disorders. Rabies causes almost 100 % fatality rate in humans, and it is also 100 % preventable. Thousands of people die from rabies each year, with the majority occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa.The disease is one of the deadliest viral diseases known to humans, which claims about 60,500 human lives annually, mostly in countries with low income. Over 90 % of rabies infections are transmitted via dogs.Rabies vaccines are the major means to prevent and tocontrol rabies.The vaccines can be administered both pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis.The rabies vaccine was first developed witha virus-infected nerve tissue. In its evolutional stages, different types of vaccines have evolved, such as toxoid vaccines, live attenuated vaccines, inactivated vaccines and subunit vaccines. Future trends of novel vaccines development are targeted towards nuclei-based vaccine and therapeutic vaccine for specific diseases. These advances in technology arelimited in Sub-Saharan Africa, owing to lack of infrastructure, high cost low power supply and economic constraint. The vaccine market size is small, and those with the greatest need for vaccine, cannot afford to purchase them at market price.The delivery systems remain another important area of focus, which when addressed will help in effective shipping and access of the product. This review examines the key challenges and recent advances in addressing vaccine development in Sub-Saharan Africa, with the aim of highlighting effective strategies to improve vaccine quality and acceptance coverage.