Capitalism is the Rabid Dog

From the Independent
Around the world, rabies kills around 100 children every day.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates there are 55,000 rabies deaths every year. According to the Global Alliance for Rabies Control, the total is 70,000, with 10 million treated for bites from potentially infected dogs. India has the highest annual rate of deaths in Asia: 20,000. The majority of victims are under 15. In Africa and Asia alone, the disease (the most potently lethal known on earth) threatens 3.3 billion people – just under half the world's population. Dogs are responsible for 97 per cent of human rabies cases.

Rabies is a virus that targets the brain and spinal cord. It is found in the saliva of infected animals and is most often transferred through a bite.

The post-bite jab was invented 126 years ago, but it has a huge price tag in the developing world: in Asia, it costs $49 (£32), and $40 in Africa, where the average daily income is between $1-$2. It is cheaper in India, which has developed its own vaccine, 400 rupees (£5). Every year 40,000 Americans need a $1,000 series of shots.

Dr François-Xavier Meslin, head of zoonotic diseases at the WHO, says patients are frequently condemned to a painful, brutal and often isolated death because they have no money.

Sarah Cleaveland, professor of comparative epidemiology at the University of Glasgow tells of a family she met who had enough money for one course of treatment after their five children were attacked by rabid dogs. They had just one day to choose which child to save.

The suffering and death that lies behind capitalism's exterior of modernisation and progress is exposed when the facts are shown.