Experts to Implement Mass Vaccination Program to Stop Rabies Spread

Anti-rabies vaccination programs for dogs will free the world of deadly disease, say health experts.

Recently, a research team led by the Washington State University introduced a mass dog vaccination program to eliminate rabies infection that spreads from animals to humans by coming in contact with saliva and bites from an infected animal. Once the virus is contracted, it attacks the central nervous system and causes inflammation in the brain and spinal cord. Upon developing the symptoms an individuals has 100 percent chances of dying. Every year rabies kill almost 69,000 people across the world and forty percent of these cases involve children living in African and Asian countries.

"The irony is that rabies is 100 percent preventable. People shouldn't be dying at all," said Guy Palmer, co-author and infectious disease expert at Washington State University's Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health in a new release.

The experts believe owing to political complacency and absence of strict action program to vaccinate against rabies virus, the disease is common in many developing countries. But the new vaccination program is cost-effective and devised with the goal of putting an end to the disease spread. These strategies have been implemented in Latin American countries and pilot projects in South African and Southeast Asia suggest its complete potential prevention and elimination with the help of vaccines, reports the Reuters News.

The program will be targeting small-to-medium size areas, might cost at least millions of dollars and require the support of international charity organization to end the pandemic spread of rabies.

"We know how and we have the ammunition to do it. I am optimistic that it can be done. Whether the necessary political will and funding will be harnessed is another matter," said Felix Lankester, director of the Serengeti Health Initiative who conducted the dog vaccination campaigns in villages around Tanzania's Serengeti National Park, reports the Reuters News.