Rabies vaccination volunteers needed for Mission Rabies Cambodian project
Mission Rabies, the UK charity at the forefront of rabies elimination worldwide, is seeking volunteers to join their greatest project to date this November. The volunteers will be part of a pioneering project in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where a child dies every week from rabies. The team’s mission will be to vaccinate 100,000 dogs in just ten days to protect the human population from this deadly, but entirely preventable, disease.
Founder and CEO of Mission Rabies, Dr Luke Gamble, explains: “This vital project is the ultimate challenge. Put simply, we must stop the needless deaths of these kids. It’s completely in our power and we’re honoured to be supporting the Cambodian government with the mission. Now we need awesome Vet Candy subscribers to join us in this incredible country to ensure that we vaccinate the magic number of 100,000 dogs. “Rabies is a horrific and unrelenting disease. Once symptoms show it’s nearly always fatal. But together, we can combat rabies and stop it in its tracks through targeted vaccination.”
The concentrated vaccination drive runs for two weeks from the 14 th to the 28 th of November 2020 with volunteers able to join for either week, or the full campaign. The project is being managed by Dr Amy Lewis, who says, “Cambodia is an inspiring country, but it is ravaged by the deadly rabies disease. The country has the highest reported incidence of rabies globally with an estimated 700,000 people being bitten by a suspected rabid dog each year. With a child dying of rabies every single week in Phnom Penh, we just had to do something.”
Phnom Penh is home to over 2 million people, who constantly live at risk of an infected dog bite. With 99% of human rabies cases caused by dog bites, it’s no wonder that the community fear the canines they share Cambodia’s capital city with. However, a simple vaccination given to at least 70% of the canine population can break the cycle of transmission of rabies – instantly protecting both the dogs and humans who live alongside them.
To vaccinate enough dogs, Mission Rabies requires an army of passionate and driven volunteers from veterinary and non-veterinary backgrounds. Together, they will form vaccination teams – visiting households door-to-door to ensure every dog in every neighbourhood is vaccinated. The teams will also cover data capture and post-vaccination surveys to ensure that the right number of dogs are vaccinated. The charity is bringing extensive experience and knowledge to the project – having been protecting communities in rabies hot spots for the last seven years. In total, they’ve vaccinated over 1.2 million dogs and educated over 3 million children to reduce human deaths within their key project sites to zero.
For more information on how to volunteer on the trip click on the link below:
