Key Issues
Rabies is a viral, zoonotic (transmitted from animals to humans) disease, first recorded more than 4,000 years ago. It is 100% fatal once symptoms appear and, today, still kills more than 59,000 people a year, mainly in Africa and Asia, and mostly children. That is one person every 9 minutes. 99% of all human rabies cases are caused by the bite of an infected dog. As well as human deaths, rabies is also responsible for millions of dogs being killed inhumanely each year around the world, because of the fear of rabies.
Removing the fear of rabies, by eliminating human deaths due to the disease, will also lead to improved attitudes towards all dogs, including roaming dogs.
Rabies is 100% preventable, good vaccines have been around for many years. Focusing on the mass vaccination of dogs can
What we do
Mission Rabies as part of WVS (Dogs Trust subsidiary organisation) is fighting to eliminate human deaths due to dog bite transmitted rabies. They are leading the charge for Dogs Trust on the ground against Rabies.
At the international level we are a Member of United Against Rabies (UAR),signed up to the global aim of “Zero by 30: the global strategic plan to end human deaths from dog-mediated rabies by 2030.”
What we’ll do
Rabies is preventable; we aim to be part of the solution eliminating human deaths due to rabies and stopping dogs being indiscriminately killed due to the fear of rabies.
There are 3 main pillars contributing to that goal:
Mass vaccination of dogs (70% in a community annually
Education, especially of children, to be safe around dogs and what to do if bitten.
Data gathering and surveillance
On the ground we will continue our work with our partners, carrying out mass vaccination campaigns of dogs wherever the need is greatest and educating children. We will work particularly in India which is a rabies hotspot.
At the international level we are a Member of United Against Rabies (UAR),signed up to the global aim of “Zero by 30: the global strategic plan to end human deaths from dog-mediated rabies by 2030.” United against Rabies https://www.unitedagainstrabies.org/who-we-are/is a forum launched in 2020 by The World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH, formally OIE), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).