We're calling time on rabies.
If we act now, our generation can be the one to eliminate rabies for good.
We can make this the final rabies generation.
over 4 million
dogs vaccinated
over 8 million
children reached
Mission Rabies in Action
Mission Rabies
Over 99% of human rabies cases are caused by an infected dog bite. Once symptoms of the disease develop, it is fatal.
Every year, millions of healthy dogs are inhumanely killed for fear of this deadly disease. However, this doesn't halt the spread of rabies, which causes the death of at least 59,000 people a year - the majority of which are children under 15.
Mission Rabies is changing that.
Science shows that the most effective long-term rabies control strategy is through vaccination of dogs in endemic areas, so we head to rabies hotspots and run mass vaccination and education programmes - protecting both the human and canine populations.
Crucially, it's working. Human deaths in our key project sites have all but been eliminated and we'll keep going until it's zero all around the world.
Be a part of this life-saving mission!
Key facts
The virus
- Rabies is a bullet-shaped lyssavirus.
- It is so small, you could fit 5550 virus particles into a single raindrop.
- It can affect any mammal, including humans, and uses its hosts' nervous system to travel from the body to the brain.
- Once it has reached the brain, it replicates, causing inflammation and large amount of virus can now be found in the saliva.
- The host is now infectious.
Key facts
The symptoms
- Once rabies symptoms are present, it is 100% fatal.
- The virus is very unstable outside of the host, so to pass it onto new victims, the virus changes the way its host behaves.
- There are 2 forms of rabies symptoms:
- 80% display the ‘furious' form where signs can include: Restlessness, sensitivity to sound and movement; wandering aimlessly into new areas; excessive reactions to people and animals; aggression; indiscriminate biting and saliva may drip from the mouth.
- The other form is ‘dumb' where animals become lethargic, potentially paralysed and show other non-specific signs of illness.
The problem
- Rabies is a neglected tropical disease that affects the poorest and most marginal communities.
- Known as the world's deadliest disease, rabies has a 100% fatality rate once symptoms develop.
- It kills an estimated 59,000 people a year, the majority of whom are children.
- 95% of all human cases are in Asia and Africa.
- 99% of all human rabies cases are transmitted through dog bites.
- Globally, Rabies is predicted to cost $8.6 billion USD every year
Dogs
- 99% of human rabies cases are a consequence of dog bites.
- This causes dogs to be feared amongst many communities resulting in persecution and culling by government organisations through a misunderstanding that this will eliminate rabies.
- Creating a safe and stable dog population through the combination of vaccination and sterilisation is the best way to reduce canine and human rabies.
Vaccination
- Rabies is 100% vaccination preventable
- We know that infected dog bites are the main cause of rabies in people and that killing dogs does not stop the disease.
- Studies indicate that mass canine vaccination programmes are the most effective measure for controlling rabies, and that vaccinating 70% of the dogs in an area where rabies is prevalent is necessary to control the disease in both humans and dogs.
- Some places in the world have successfully used mass vaccination programmes to become canine rabies-free for over 10 years - examples include Latin America and Japan.
- We have already seen a reduction in human rabies deaths in our project sites and aim to achieve the same across the globe.
Zero human deaths from dog-mediated rabies by 2030!
In 2015 a global conference of Rabies stakeholders, including WHO, OIE and GARC, constructed a framework for the elimination of human deaths from dog-mediated rabies by 2030.
Rabies is 100% vaccine-preventable, we can and will eliminate Rabies.
Resources
FAQsIn association with:
