Project reports
Our projects aim to do more than stop rabies in one place. We are working to produce a model that health authorities worldwide can follow to combat the threat of rabies in their area.
Global momentum in the fight against rabies could see the end of this terrifying disease – that’s what we’re working towards.
Bohol
The Bohol Rabies Prevention and Elimination Project wins the Galing Pook.
The Galing Pook is a prestigious annual award bestowed by the President of the Philippines which recognizes 10 local governance projects for their excellence. Winning projects are held up as examples for other communities to follow.
Bohol is one island of 1.3 million people, in a nation of over 7000 islands and 94 million people, and there is a lot of competition for this accolade.
So, what did we do to achieve The Galing Pook?
Collaboration
The project brought together educators, physicians, veterinarians, government officials, community leaders and the general public, and aligned them for coordinated effort. We call this an ‘intersectoral approach’.
Rabies prevention on the island grew from 124 paid government staff to 15021 people (including thousands of village based volunteers and teachers). This program produced a seismic shift in rabies control, from government dependent implementation to a community led movement.
Dog registration
The program steadily enforced mandatory dog registration and vaccination. Making this a legal requirement secures long-term sustainability.
A small fee is charged for dog registration and this helps to fund the on-going program costs and subsidizes human post-exposure vaccines.
Education
For the first time, bite prevention, rabies education, and responsible pet ownership are now part of the Provincial primary school curriculum. Every year, over 185,000 children will be taught about rabies in school. These children are effective at spreading this knowledge to their families and the broader community.
Myth and misunderstanding about rabies are being sustainably tackled from the bottom up.
Community Participation
Response teams are in place on the island to deal with suspected rabies cases and take steps to stop the disease spreading.
Throughout the island, 4,379 people received paralegal training. Their role is to monitor human exposures and suspect cases, and their presence encourages the responsibility of dog owners. These paralegal volunteers also improve the community’s access to justice.
The results
The Philippines is amongst the top 10 countries for rabies deaths. In 2007, when GARC began their rabies control project, Bohol was ranked as the 4th highest region in the Philippines, averaging 10 deaths per year.
In 2010, that number was zero. Sadly, in 2011 there has been one death. Although this still represents a tremendous improvement, it also emphasizes that rabies can re-emerge at any time and continued vigilance is essential.
Now, almost all dogs are registered and have dog tags. 70% of the dog population has been vaccinated and registered, involving 47 municipalities, 109 barangays (villages) and 43,690 households.
The impact of controlling rabies in Bohol has gone beyond saving lives. It has allowed the burgeoning tourism industry to flourish, contributing to the local economy.
The islander’s no longer have to live in fear of the disease. ‘Knowledge and Practice’ surveys show that residents feel safer now that most dogs have been vaccinated. They also feel more involved and better informed, as the activities are initiated at the barangay (village) level.
People’s understanding of the disease has improved and they now seek medical assistance from experts rather than turning to faith healers.
And, an unexpected benefit of the project is a significant reduction in the number of road accidents caused by stray dogs.
The cost
The involvement of community volunteers was key to the project’s success but also meant the overall budget was less than $0.30 per person over three years.
What next in Bohol?
Now that the infrastructure is set up, rabies control continues as a part of daily life on the island. And, following the Galing Pook award, other Philippine communities will look to Bohol as a model for their own rabies control.
However, the project itself is expanding. The model, initially designed with the traditional approach of tackling one disease at a time (vertical management), is being adapted to ‘horizontal disease management’. The rabies control infrastructure is to be used for simultaneously controlling other diseases. This is testament to the power of our community led model and another example of the benefits of the project reaching beyond its original scope.
Read more about our project in Bohol here
This project was generously funded by UBS Optimus Foundation.
Adopt a Village, India
India accounts for 20% of reported rabies deaths. This project aims to first assess and then improve people’s knowledge and attitudes to rabies, and their practice of rabies prevention.
It also includes vaccinating dogs, monitoring the incidence of the disease in people and animals and providing post-exposure treatments to people exposed to the disease, and assessing the effectiveness of pre-exposure vaccines given to children.
Education
As always, education is an essential component. Medical and veterinary partners in the target villages are working together to educate people in their own language, with sensitivity to local customs. Educational materials for this project includes board games, traditional folk dancers, and distributing calendars to all homes.
Meet Mrs. Roseline Pinto
A school teacher in Gerupalya, one of the project villages
"In my experience as a teacher since the past 20 years, I have seen several children with dog bites.
Majority of the times children don’t reveal this incident to their parents. There is lack of awareness among people in our village regarding rabies and traditional practices like application of herbs to wounds and consulting magico- religious practitioners continue to be practiced.
Adopt a Village: A Rural Rabies Prevention Project team has taken a great initiative of educating and involving the teachers, parents, village leaders about rabies and its prevention and responsible pet ownership.
We teach our school children on the do’s and don’ts following dog/animal bites through an innovative “snake and ladder game” given to us from the project team. We have organized the rabies awareness rally, exhibited posters, conducted drawing and painting competition to school children on the topic of rabies and its prevention. It’s my pleasure to be part of the project in the prevention & control of the disease in our village."
Sustainable Rabies Prevention
“Our goal is to provide a sustainable rabies prevention strategy for communities in canine rabies endemic countries that takes into account how people interact with community dogs and other animals in their environment,” said Dr. Deborah Briggs,executive director of GARC. “Rabies remains a neglected disease of the poor and disenfranchised, and we believe projects such as these being developed in India will serve as models that can be replicated in other vulnerable areas.”
We are working with local agencies, sharing knowledge and expertise, including Rabies in Asia Foundation (Nodal Agency); the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences; Kempegowda Instute of Medical Sciences; the Veterinary College, Bangalore; the Bombay Veterinary College, Mumbai; the K.N.P. College of Veterinary Science, Shirval; Karuna Animal Health Foundation, Narayangaon; and Intervet India (the Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health business located in the Pune region).
The project is being supported by a substantial financial and rabies vaccine donation from Intervet/Schering-Plough.
“Our company has a commitment to reducing the prevalence of rabies in vulnerable places around the world, and these new initiatives in India demonstrate [our] continuing support of eradication efforts,” said Schering-Plough Chairman and CEO Fred Hassan. “As with the Afya Serenge project that Schering-Plough supports in Africa, educating people about rabies and how to prevent it is the most effective weapon against the disease.”
Tanzania
