HANOI, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam has seen a rise in human deaths from rabies in the last few years, following a period of successful progressive control efforts between 1994 and 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) in the country said in a press release on Thursday.

    In Vietnam, treatment via rabies post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), administered after contact with a rabid suspected animal, mostly dogs, has more than doubled over the past 14 years reaching a rate of more than 650 per 100,000. This is the highest number of PEPs provided in the world, the WHO said.

    In response to this growing problem, a 10-day training course, organized by Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City Pasteur Institute, and France's Pasteur Institute with support from the WHO and some other organizations, is aimed at strengthening capacity in rabies epidemiology, diagnosis and control in both humans and animals. About 30 participants from Vietnam and Cambodia are attending the course.

    Nearly 5.9 million people in Vietnam have been bitten by rabies-infected dogs or cats in the last 10 years, much higher than the figure in the pre-1996 period, according to the country's Health Ministry.

    Vietnam, with a population of some 85 million, is encouraging vaccinations among people and dogs in a bid to contain the disease in 2010 and eradicate it by 2015.