Description
One Health is a multidisciplinary approach to bring together animal health, human health and the environment and rabies is a classic example of a disease that requires a One Health approach in order to control and ultimately eliminate it.
UK-based NGO Mission Rabies was launched in India in 2013 and is running comprehensive canine mass vaccination projects in 5 countries in Africa and Asia. Mission Rabies use novel mobile technology to aid and guide the teams in the field, resulting in significant reduction of human rabies deaths in the project areas. The canine mass vaccination is complemented by comprehensive education campaigns, as well as surveillance systems to detect both human and animal rabies cases.
About Mission Rabies:
Having seen the devastating effect of rabies on animals and people during his time volunteering and as a TV vet, Luke Gamble, CEO of the UK-based charity Worldwide Veterinary Service (WVS), launched Mission Rabies in India in September 2013. Since then, Mission Rabies, with the help of local and international volunteers, has managed to vaccinate over 600,000 dogs, educated 1 million children about rabies risk reduction, and neutered 64,000 dogs. The majority of the people who die from rabies are children from poor and marginal communities and over 99% of human cases of rabies are the result of dog bites. In response to these statistics, hundreds of thousands of dogs are indiscriminately and inhumanely killed, yet this makes no difference to the spread of rabies. Dogs Trust-sponsored Mission Rabies will change this by aiming to vaccinate at least 70% of the canine population in rabies-endemic areas – the proportion necessary for control of the disease in both dogs and humans according to World Health Organization guidelines. The campaign is being led by local animal welfare charities in the project countries – India, Malawi, Sri Lanka, Uganda and Tanzania. The support team in the UK is led by Dr Luke Gamble, with Dogs Trust and MSD Animal Health as the key international sponsors. Working in strong collaboration and partnership with many veterinary and animal welfare organizations will ensure sustainability of the rabies control efforts for years to come. More information about the projects, future plans and how to become a part of Mission Rabies can be found on www.missionrabies.com.
