[Rabies in Tunisia during the 19th century: case increase or disease emergence?].

At the end of the 19th century, a canine rabies epidemics started in Tunis and in several other cities of the Beylik. Archives' data trace the epidemics back to 1870 and at that time its rapid progression was ascribed to the increase of immigration from Europe. Whether the European "street rabies virus" was also imported with the settlers' pet dogs is controversial. The epidemics might rather be linked to other factors such as socio-cultural or ecological changes. The authors try to reconstruct the history of rabies in Tunisia during this period. Changes in canine ecology and increase of dog populations in urban and suburban areas might account for the emergence of rabies at the end of 19th century and its persistence in an endemo-epidemic state.