Less than a week after the village of Rezina, Ungheni district has a second rabies outbreak. The district’s Emergency Situations Commission examined the situation and imposed restrictions in Măgurele too, after the Territorial Subdivision for Food Safety Ungheni/Nisporeni/Călărași confirmed, on 4 August, a case of rabies in the village.
The measures were approved through Decision No. 11/E of 6 August 2026 of the commission, signed by the president of the district, Dionisie Ternovschi. The document approves the “Plan of anti-epizootic measures for the eradication and prophylaxis of rabies in the locality of Măgurele” and enters into force on the date of adoption, being binding for natural and legal persons throughout the district. Oversight of its execution falls to Tudor Orbu, head of the Territorial Subdivision for Food Safety.
This concerns the village of Măgurele, the seat of Măgurele commune in Ungheni district — not some other locality of the same name in the country.
What changes in the village
The plan approved for Măgurele is of the same type as the one imposed a week earlier in Rezina, Mănoilești commune. In the language of the documents, the village becomes an “unfavourable point,” in which restrictions are imposed for at least 30 days. The rules that are felt directly in households, in such an outbreak, are:
- the collection and sale of animals on the territory of the village are prohibited until the restrictions are lifted;
- the movement of animals within the locality stops for 30 days;
- a census is made of all animals in households, together with an emergency immunization against rabies;
- animals that have had contact with the source of infection are placed under surveillance, and the site is disinfected;
- the hunting of foxes and jackals, the main reservoir of the virus in the wild, is intensified.
One essential detail, just as in Rezina: the 30-day term runs from the last case, not from the date of the decision. If a new case appears in the village, the clock resets. We described the full detail of the measures, point by point, when the Commission imposed the first outbreak, in Rezina.
As in Rezina, the decision does not specify the species of the infected animal. In the previous outbreak, the species — a dog — was made public only later, through a bulletin of the National Agency for Food Safety.
Two outbreaks in a week — against an already heavy backdrop
The two cases do not appear on clean ground. In 2025, Ungheni district recorded four cases of rabies in animals — in the National Agency for Public Health’s list, immediately after Hîncești, which had ten. At the national level, 2025 was a year of sharp increase: 46 cases across 18 territories, 2.5 times more than in 2024. And in the first six months of 2026, the country had already reached 53 cases in 17 districts and municipalities — more than in the entire previous year.
The outbreak in Rezina, on 30 July, and the one in Măgurele, confirmed on 4 August, show that the virus is circulating actively in the district in the middle of summer.
What is up to every animal owner
Beyond the restrictions in one village or another, several obligations are permanent, anywhere in the district. The anti-rabies veterinary-sanitary norm, approved through Government Decision No. 174 of 2023, provides that anti-rabies vaccination is mandatory for dogs, cats and domestic ferrets, and the owner must immediately notify the veterinarian of any bite inflicted on a person or of any change in the animal’s behaviour.
The rules for people are the same everywhere. Rabies is not treated once symptoms appear, but it can be prevented if the person reaches a doctor quickly. For any bite, scratch or contact of a wound with an animal’s saliva, the National Agency for Public Health recommends washing the wound immediately and abundantly with running water and soap for at least 10–15 minutes, disinfecting the edges of the wound and seeing a doctor. Post-exposure prophylaxis is free in the Republic of Moldova.