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.
An online tool has been developed by US CDC, based on their GDREP framework, to help users to estimate the time and overall costs required to achieve the elimination dog mediated human rabies deaths by 2030.
Editorial for the February 2018 newsletter. Capacity building is an essential component of the work of many international organisations and NGOs, including GARC.