An international veterinary charity, Worldwide Veterinary Service (WVS), is celebrating educating ten million people on rabies prevention through its Mission Rabies project. The initiative, which launched in 2013, is working to eliminate canine-mediated human rabies deaths by running mass canine vaccination and community education in the world’s worst hotspots for the disease.

Dogs serve as a reservoir for the disease and are the main source of transmission to humans. The charity’s education programmes, conducted within schools, workplaces, and community groups, provide key information on how the rabies virus transmits, dog behaviour, and the steps to take if bitten by a dog. Members of the public are also encouraged to bring dogs for vaccination and sterilisation, and report suspect rabid animals to the local authorities or through the charity’s rabies hotline.

Dr Luke Gamble, CEO and Founder of Worldwide Veterinary Service, tells us:

‘Rabies kills over 59,000 people a year, the majority of whom are children. The advice given during these lessons can mean the difference between life and death.’

‘Educating ten million people is a remarkable achievement of which we are all immensely proud of. I’d like to express my deepest gratitude to our supporters, donors, volunteers, partners on the ground and local governments that we work with, and of course our dedicated education team, who are saving lives from this deadly yet entirely preventable disease. Together, we are making a real and lasting difference in areas impacted by rabies.’

Mission Rabies’ education programmes run concurrently to mass rabies vaccination campaigns where it aims to vaccinate 70% of a given dog population, the coverage needed to achieve herd immunity and stop transmission. Rabies has the highest fatality rate of any infectious disease and once symptoms show, it is already too late to receive treatment.

Gareth Thomas, Director of Education at Worldwide Veterinary Service, explains: 

‘Rabies is always fatal once symptoms develop. Washing a wound correctly can reduce the chance of rabies transmission by a third, while receiving the correct vaccination immediately after an exposure will save a person’s life. In our project areas, these lessons have increased awareness of rabies, empowering communities with the knowledge to protect themselves. This is a horrible disease that takes a devastating toll on some of the poorest communities in the world, but rabies can be stopped if the risks are widely understood and people know how to treat a dog bite.’

Children are at high risk of dog bites and the charity’s work within schools reaches ages five up to sixteen, with lessons delivered directly to children in their classes and assemblies. Additionally, training is provided for teachers, with over 192,000 teachers trained since 2013. Every single school visit and community workshop is recorded via a ‘rabies app’ to aid real-time project management aligning education work with vaccination campaigns and disease surveillance. This also allows the charity to produce incredibly accurate data on the reach of their work. The charity’s local teams keep in touch with schools and communities to provide ongoing support – particularly whenever there is a suspect rabies case in a given area.

Marjory Banda, School Health and Nutrition Coordinator for Blantyre Urban, Malawi, tells us:

‘Because of the rabies lessons provided by Mission Rabies through School Health and Nutrition (SHN) teachers, school children in Blantyre now know the dangers of rabies and how to prevent the disease. The children are very engaged during the workshops and have learnt how to behave around dogs to avoid bites. This is an incredibly important programme for children in Malawi and it is great to be part of it.’

Mission Rabies’ education programme reached 1.4 million people last year and continues to expand this year. The team have already reached over 900,000 children in just the first half of 2024, as part of an effort to accelerate the pace of global elimination. The charity aims to grow its education programme in India, Malawi, and Cambodia this year while delivering small proof of concept programmes in Tanzania, Ghana, Uganda, Sierra Leone and Mozambique. You can learn more and support the work of Mission Rabies by visiting missionrabies.com.