Nominate someone today for a World Rabies Day award as thanks for their great work in rabies prevention. Nominations close on September 7th. The shortlisted entries will be announced on World Rabies Day, September 28th, and the awards will be announced on One Health Day, November 3rd.
As part of an ongoing vaccination and awareness campaign in Harare, Zimbabwe, hundreds of copies of GARC's educational booklet "Want a Friend? Be a Friend!" have been distributed to local children to help them learn about dog bite prevention, rabies, and responsible pet ownership.
A new research study undertaken by GARC and recently published in PLoS ONE has quantified the benefits and the limitations of relying on the provision of human vaccine to prevent deaths from dog transmitted rabies. These new findings are of great significance to all rabies endemic countries hoping to reach the global goal of zero human deaths by 2030.
A strategic plan that provides a phased, all-inclusive, intersectoral approach to eliminate human deaths from rabies has just been launched by United Against Rabies, a collaboration of four partners: the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the Global Alliance for Rabies Control (GARC).
Over the last few years, this newsletter has charted an important progression--the strengthening and streamlining of GARC’s work to support countries in their rabies elimination efforts.
A collaboration between the UN FAO, USAID and GARC guided the West African country of Guinea through an intensive rabies diagnostic training course and a national workshop focusing on the Stepwise Approach towards Rabies Elimination (SARE).
In Asia, more than 4 billion people continue to be at risk of rabies. Of the estimated 59,000 human rabies deaths every year, the majority (59.6%) occur in Asia. As an expansion of GARC’s regional rabies networks, the 1st Asian Rabies Control Network (ARACON) Meeting was held in Bangkok, Thailand from 13-14th March 2018.
The World Rabies Day 2018 theme is Rabies: Share the message. Save a life. This highlights the importance of education and awareness to prevent rabies.
Stories appear with alarming regularity in the international media about authorities carrying out mass stray dog culling in response to rabies cases. Attracting fewer headlines is the high frequency of routine culling carried out month after month, and year after year aiming to curb rabies in stray dog populations.
The GARC Philippines office provided technical input and materials for a field training program for an all-female vet student association, including instruction in the Rabies Educator Certificate (REC) and professional guidance during a rabies vaccination campaign.