World Rabies Day 2021 – Making Our Voices Heard

ALASDAIR KING

Executive Director, International Veterinary Health

World Rabies Day (WRD) is September 28^th and have been preparing for it once again.

We have taken the #Rabies360Challenge that we started last year and expanded on the idea. It has been wonderful seeing all the different activities that people have taken on. I must admit to some surprise since I have discovered that my target this year of 360 dog related photos has proved harder to complete than hiking 360,000 steps. At the time of writing I still don’t know if I will succeed.

However, what I do know is that it is important not to give up, just as we mustn’t give up on this goal of eliminating rabies. Human and animal lives depend on it. That is why we must continue to have a voice, raising awareness and pushing forward with vaccination campaigns, community engagement, and education.

Watch out for the emergence podcast edition on WRD. I talk to Dr Monique Eloit, Director General of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), and Dr Bernadette Abela-Ridder, Team Leader for Neglected Zoonotic Diseases at the World Health Organization (WHO). Both have been involved with rabies control for many years and are committed to eliminating this disease. They shared with me their thoughts and the direction being taken by the United Against Rabies (UAR) forum.

And if you didn’t listen to the podcast with Dr Felix Lankester back in July then have a listen, he talks about the challenges to rabies control in Africa. Rabies is a disease that we can prevent.

Having rabies on the agenda at the WHO Health Summit earlier this year was a major step forward (you can see the recording at Paradigm Shift in One Health Action: Regional Rabies Elimination.

Let’s make sure that World Rabies Day is loud and keeps the momentum.

ALASDAIR KING

Executive Director, International Veterinary Health