Amid outbreaks of rabies in China and some other parts of Asia, the Department of Health (DOH) urged would-be travelers Sunday to get vaccinated against the disease before departing for those regions. No human cases of rabies have been reported in Taiwan since 1959, apart from a single case imported from China in 2002, and no animal cases have been reported since January 1961, according to Council of Agriculture data. Citing statistics compiled by the World Trade Organization, Chou Chih-hao, deputy director of the DOH's Centers for Disease Control (CDC) , said there are about 50,000 fatal rabies cases in Asia every year. However, the number of rabies fatalities on the Indonesian island of Bali, one of the most popular destinations for Taiwanese holidaymakers, has doubled to 53 so far this year from 26 for the whole of 2009. In China, rabies has claimed 1,178 lives among the 1,296 reported cases up to August this year, compared to 2,213 cases with 2,131 fatalities for the whole of 2009. Vietnam, meanwhile, reports an average of 9,000 cases every year, while India has around 30,000 cases per year. Rabies, or hydrophobia, is a viral disease that causes acute encephalitis in mammals. It is most commonly transmitted through a bite from an infected animal, but occasionally through other forms of contact. Left untreated, the disease is almost always fatal. Chou urged the public to get the three-stage vaccination one month before departing for rabies-affected areas, and to try to avoid contact with animals such as dogs, cats, bats, squirrels and monkeys while in those areas. 