While Ebola has quickly emerged one of the world's most pressing threats, rabies -- known as the mad dog disease -- kills about 69,000 people yearly, even though a vaccination for it was created nearly 130 years ago.

Back in 1885, none other than the renowned French chemist Louis Pasteur developed a way to ward off the horrific disease which, without quick treatment, leads to an agonizing death.

The virus, which claims an estimated 189 human lives every day, 40 percent of which are children, according to the World Health Organization, could be completely eliminated among humans, yet persists, partly due to political complacency as well as a lack of international commitment, veterinary infectious disease expert Guy Palmer, who directs Washington State University's Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health based in the College of Veterinary Medicine, said in a press release.

Of course, rabies generally strikes underdeveloped, faraway places of the world, with most related deaths occurring in Asia and Africa.

"Once a person develops symptoms of rabies, the chance that he or she will die is nearly 100 percent," Palmer said. "The irony is that rabies is 100 percent preventable. People shouldn't be dying at all."

After all is said, the best and surest way to prevent rabies from further ravaging the world's human populations is to simply stop it among dogs, the biggest source of transmission.

Dog immunization programs are the most viable way to combat rabies, said Palmer, who explained the rabies virus, one of the oldest known viruses, is spread to humans through the saliva of infected animals, mostly dogs.

"We've had plenty of time to acquire the know-how and tools to deal with it," he said.

Vaccinating dogs is not only effective, but it's also far less costly than trying to treat victims after they get infected, said Louise Taylor, a biologist with the Global Alliance for Rabies Control, who co-wrote a paper considering the status of rabies today, "Implementing Pasteur's vision for rabies elimination," recently published in Science magazine.

With human rabies eradication in mind, agencies and individuals around the globe have banded together to recognize Sunday, Sept. 28, as World Rabies Day.

The annual event is held on the day of Pasteur's death -- 119 years ago this year.

Although human rabies is rarely seen in developed nations that conduct mass vaccination programs, the disease should nonetheless be viewed as a global public health problem, said Palmer.

"I think people tend to lose sight of why we vaccinate our pets, thinking that we do it to protect them from rabies," he said. "But ultimately, we do it to protect ourselves."