OUR COMMUNICATIONS
This page is where the Alliance for Rabies Control posts reviews of our work and campaigns, statements and press releases.
June 2010: New Tool in the Global Fight against Rabies
The Alliance is delighted to announce that the Blueprint for Canine Rabies Elimination and Human Rabies Prevention is now available online. The tool was developed by global rabies experts by the Alliance and Partners for Rabies Prevention to serve as a guide for countries that would like to prevent human rabies by eliminating canine rabies within their borders. It contains practical help and advice about all aspects of canine rabies control as well as links to further resources and case studies. It is currently available in english and french, but other languages are under consideration. The full press release is available here
May 2010: Alliance presents Dr Fayaz with a certificate of appreciation
Dr Deborah Briggs presented Dr Ahmad Fayaz of the Pasteur Institute of Iran with a certificate of appreciation from the Alliance for Rabies Control at a meeting in Tehran, Iran. Dr Fayaz has worked in the fields of rabies diagnosis, research and control since the early 1960s contributing significantly to our understanding of rabies virology, immunology and epidemiology. He has a distinguished publication record and is the director of the WHO collaborating centre for Rabies in Iran.
February 2010: World Rabies Day 2009 Campaign Outcomes
A short brochure on the achievements of the 2009 WRD events. It can be downloaded here
December 2009: The year in review
A special holiday newsletter highlighting the successes of the Alliance's year.
Read it here.
November 2007: World Rabies Day 2007 Campign outcomes
The Alliance has published a short brochure highlighting the successes of the Inaugural World Rabies Day Campaign. World Rabies Day 2007 was marked by hundreds of events in more than 74 countries, with media outreach that we estimate reached more than 54.3 million people worldwide. This is an astonishing acheivement for an inaugural campaign and was only possible due to the combined efforts of many, many individuals and organizations.
The brochure can be downloaded here.
March 2007: the ALLIANCE for RABIES CONTROL STATEMENT relating to a news item on BBC News and the UK Sun newspaper - March 20th 2007
Click here to see the film
Rabid cheetah attacks BBC star
The Sun newspaper reported a case of a rabies in a cheetah documented by a BBC film team (Simon King and Stephen Nangunye), which occurred while the crew was filming a story about another cheetah, an orphan hand-raised male (Toki), being released back into the wild.
Just before Toki was due to be released, an adult female cheetah was seen in the vicinity of the pre-release enclosure. The female was extremely tame, but otherwise appeared completely healthy and normal. Unfortunately, the "tameness" was an early sign of rabies. Thinking she was a healthy, habituated cheetah, Simon and Stephen were astounded when she attacked, and as a result of the attack Stephen suffered bite injuries to his hand and Simon was injured by her dew-claw.
After the incident, the team realize that the cheetah might be rabid and washed their wounds thoroughly before rushing to the nearest clinic where rabies vaccine was available for the course of post-exposure treatment. The cheetah's condition subsequently deteriorated rapidly and she was tranquilised and euthanased by vets. Tests carried out in Nairobi confirmed that she had rabies.
Rabies has been documented extremely rarely in cheetahs, but this incident clearly indicates that cheetahs may be the most recent of a growing number of endangered species that are threatened by rabies. In East Africa, the rabies problem originates with domestic dogs, and is also the cause of hundreds of horrific human deaths each year.
Simon and Stephen were fortunate in being able to access and afford the course of rabies vaccine needed to prevent the onset of clinical disease. But most people in rural Africa are not so lucky and the bite from a rabid animal can often be a death sentence.
Although rabies is a growing threat to wildlife and human health in rural Africa, the disease can be effectively controlled through mass vaccination of dogs. Programs in neighboring Tanzania show that vaccinating village dogs is entirely feasible and can substantially reduce disease risks for people and wildlife.
For further information about rabies control in Africa, please contact Dr. Sarah Cleaveland, and see our links page for additional details of projects interested in rabies in wildlife species.
February 2007: The Alliance for Rabies Control launches its key fundraising and awareness campaign for 2007: World Rabies Day, which is set for September 28th. This will co-ordiante efforts around the globe. The World Rabies Day effort is supported by the United States Centers for Disease Control.
October 2006: STATEMENT The protocol successfully adopted by Dr. Rodney Willoughby to treat a human case of rabies (featured on the UK television Channel 5 documentary "Extraordinary People: The Girl Who Survived Rabies", 30/10/06) represents a remarkable breakthrough and provides optimism that treatment of clinical cases of human rabies may become possible in the future. However, prevention of the disease must still remain a high priority.
Each day thousands of people around the world, particularly in Asia and Africa, are bitten by rabid animals and require immediate post-exposure prophylaxis (vaccination and administration of immunoglobulin) to prevent the progression of the virus and the development of clinical disease.
Efforts also need to be directed towards controlling the disease at source - that is, in the animal reservoir population - primarily through mass vaccination programmes. Vaccination campaigns have consistently shown that when the disease is controlled in the animal reservoir, rabies can be eliminated. Worldwide, the most important animal reservoir is the domestic dog, which causes the vast majority of human rabies deaths and is the principal reservoir of the disease in Africa and Asia.
Dogs in Asia and Africa often roam freely giving the impression that it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to vaccinate enough dogs to control rabies. However, recent studies show that most community and household dogs can be vaccinated relatively simply and that sufficient dogs (about 70% of the population) can be vaccinated to control the disease and prevent exposure of people and other animals to the deadly rabies virus.
The Alliance for Rabies Control is committed to reducing the burden of rabies across the World by supporting the development of large-scale dog vaccination programmes, improving availability and use of human post-exposure prophylaxis, and increasing education and awareness about rabies.
October 2006: Several members of the Alliance for Rabies Control have been involved in developing a new strategy to control rabies in endangered Ethiopian wolves. Protecting endangered species from disease threats without adding to their stresses is always difficult. However, this new study published in the journal Nature, suggests that vaccinating a targetted group of animals can protect the rest of the population without the need for blanket vaccine coverage. The work shows how collaboration between theoreticians and experts in practical rabies control and conservation is invaluable in producing effective solutions to disease control.
July 2006: The Alliance for Rabies Control is highlighed as an important initiative in a report jointly published in July 2006 by the World Health Organization and the UK Department for International Developement's Animal Health Programme: "The Control of Neglected Zoonotic Diseases: A route to poverty alleviation." (click the link to access the report).
