Component : Rabies

Region :

Africa

Following a small-scale pilot project conducted in selected counties of Kenya (between 2015 and 2019), the Government of Kenya in 2020 benefited from financial and technical support to draft a national action plan to expand operations to the whole of Kenya and meet the 2030 deadline for elimination of rabies in people, to be submitted to the European Commission for co-funding (completed);
Five countries in Eastern Africa benefit(ed) from financial and technical support to draft (with the assistance of a dedicated consultant) and thereafter approve National Strategic Plans for rabies elimination, charting the way forward to deal with rabies, in dogs (vaccination mainly) and people (post exposure prophylaxis mainly). These countries are Burundi (ongoing), Eritrea (completed), Rwanda (completed), Sudan (currently on-hold) and Uganda (ongoing);

Once a National Strategic Plan is in place, outlining the approach towards elimination, including mass dog vaccination (MDV), countries in the region are eligible to access dog vaccines from the WOAH Rabies Vaccine Bank. The State of Eritrea has already benefited from such deliveries (75,000 doses in 2021);
Once a National Strategic Plan is in place and validated, countries can apply for support from WOAH for part of the implementation of such Plans, e.g. to improve laboratory diagnosis, make the cold chain more robust or learn about dog census techniques;
In parallel to the improvement of national laboratory diagnosis (veterinary or medical, if relevant) there may be need to engage in twinning with a recognized WOAH Reference Laboratory for the diagnosis of rabies in animals. This is the case for a twinning agreement between the OIE Reference Laboratory for rabies at the Onderstepoort Veterinary Research (OVR) institute in Pretoria, South Africa (parent lab) and the National Animal Health Diagnosis and Investigation Center (NAHDIC) in Sebeta, Ethiopia (candidate lab) which commenced in January 2021 (ongoing);
Following the organisation, but a multitude of partner organisations and donors, of the first meeting of regional rabies coordinators and directors in Eastern Africa, in 2017 (Nairobi, Kenya), the PC-TADs project aims to support the organisation of the 2nd and 3rd such meetings, as soon as conditions permit (scheduled).