Founded | 2007 |
---|---|
Type | International non-governmental organization |
Purpose | Rabies prevention and control |
Headquarters | Kansas, US |
Region | Worldwide |
Key people | Professor Louis Nel |
Website | rabiesalliance |
The Global Alliance for Rabies Control (GARC) is a non-profit organization that aims to eliminate deaths from canine rabies by 2030. Rabies is a neglected disease of poverty, which is almost 100% fatal, but can also be prevented with available vaccines. The Global Alliance for Rabies Control's work centers around the One Health Approach where vaccinating dogs (the source of up to 99% of rabies exposures to people [1] ) stops the disease at its source and protects the whole community. Where the funding and political will exist, canine rabies has been eliminated. Inequality in access to preventive health care and proven control methods means that around 59,000 people, almost all in Africa and Asia, die every year. [2]
The Global Alliance for Rabies Control runs programs to address the main obstacles to eliminating rabies:a lack of coordination of human and veterinary services; low public awareness of the risks; an absence of data; and poor health system capacity. It works with governments; international organizations; veterinary, public health and educational experts; and communities to facilitate policy change and build capacity to eliminate rabies in areas hardest hit by the disease.
The Global Alliance for Rabies Control was established in 2007 as a 501(c)(3) organization in the US. It works with a sister charity in the UK, the Alliance for Rabies Control, [3] established in 2006.
It is dedicated to eliminating rabies in both humans and animals, in support of the global goal to end deaths due to canine-transmitted rabies by 2030. [4] Its mission is to prevent human rabies deaths, and to relieve the burden of rabies in other animal populations, especially dogs. [5]
The author Alexander McCall Smith [6] is the patron of the organization.
The Global Alliance for Rabies Control works to unite rabies stakeholders [7] to increase awareness and support for rabies elimination, build in-country capabilities to tackle the disease at the national level, educate at-risk communities to protect themselves and build the evidence base to demonstrate the benefits of eliminating rabies.
The Global Alliance for Rabies Control manages an international, multi-partner communications campaign, End Rabies Now, [8] to achieve zero deaths from dog-mediated rabies by 2030 worldwide. Many international organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), have signed up as partners on this campaign.
In 2008, the Global Alliance for Rabies Control created Partners for Rabies Prevention, [9] a network of rabies experts. Partners include the WHO, OIE, FAO, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), vaccine manufacturers and NGOs. The Global Alliance for Rabies Control acts as the secretariat for this informal group. The Partners for Rabies Prevention created the Blueprint for Rabies Control, [10] a freely available practical guide used by countries in their national planning.
In 2015, the Global Alliance for Rabies Control established the Pan-African Rabies Control Network, [11] which includes governments from 37 countries. The network unites all sub-Saharan African countries and helps them to develop and implement effective rabies elimination strategies and monitor progress towards elimination. The Global Alliance for Rabies Control supports other networks, such as ASEAN in Asia, with similar capacity building expertise.
The Global Alliance for Rabies Control works with local government partners on demonstration projects in the Philippines on mass dog vaccination, community outreach, education, diagnosis and surveillance. [12] These elements are integrated into national government programs, and the resulting data will inform policy decisions in other countries.
The Global Alliance for Rabies Control and its partners have reassessed the global burden of rabies, and are working on the costs of rabies and the benefits of individual large-scale rabies control programs. The global burden of rabies is now estimated to be 59,000 human lives every year, with annual economic losses of around 8.6 billion US dollars. [13]
The first World Rabies Day (WRD) was organized by the two founding partners, the Alliance for Rabies Control (ARC) and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta (CDC), on 8 September 2007 with the co-sponsorship of the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/AMRO). [14] In 2008, the Global Alliance for Rabies Control changed the date to 28 September, as remembrance for the day of Louis Pasteur's death, for the routine recognition of WRD, an annual global day of awareness on September 28, spreading the message of rabies prevention to millions of people, in over 100 countries. [15] The Global Alliance for Rabies Control offers a series of free online courses through the GARC Education Platform [16] to provide communities and professionals with skills and knowledge to prevent rabies. Up to 60% of all rabies deaths are children. The organization's education projects reach children at school and outside the school system to teach them about rabies and dog bite prevention.
The Global Alliance for Rabies Control, working hand-in-hand with governments, experts and communities, runs in-country training workshops for human and animal health professionals to improve diagnosis, surveillance and awareness. This has included diagnostic training for government laboratories in the Philippines, Zanzibar, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Lesotho and Indonesia, and education workshops for teachers, community health workers, and vet technicians in Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Zanzibar, the Philippines, Haiti and Cambodia.
With its partners, the organization has developed tools such as the Rabies Blueprint and Stepwise Approach towards Rabies Elimination [17] to help countries develop rabies programs and monitor progress towards elimination. The Stepwise Approach was used by the Kenyan government to develop its national rabies elimination strategy, [18] and by all countries in the Pan-African Rabies Control Network [11] to determine their stage of progress and next steps needed to eliminate rabies.
The Global Alliance for Rabies Control-supported large scale rabies elimination project on the island of Bohol, Philippines, which resulted in the elimination of canine rabies on the island, was awarded the Galing Pook in 2011 [19] and The Charity Award 2013 for Healthcare and Medical Research. [20]
The World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), formerly the Office International des Epizooties (OIE), is an intergovernmental organisation founded in 1924, coordinating, supporting and promoting animal disease control.
Animal trypanosomiasis, also known as nagana and nagana pest, or sleeping sickness, is a disease of vertebrates. The disease is caused by trypanosomes of several species in the genus Trypanosoma such as T. brucei. T. vivax causes nagana mainly in West Africa, although it has spread to South America. The trypanosomes infect the blood of the vertebrate host, causing fever, weakness, and lethargy, which lead to weight loss and anemia; in some animals the disease is fatal unless treated. The trypanosomes are transmitted by tsetse flies.
A dog bite is a bite upon a person or other animal by a dog, including from a rabid dog. More than one successive bite is often called a dog attack, although dog attacks can include knock-downs and scratches. Though some dog bites do not result in injury, they can result in infection, disfigurement, temporary or permanent disability, or death. Another type of dog bite is the "soft bite" displayed by well-trained dogs, by puppies, and in non-aggressive play. Dog bites can occur during dog fighting, as a response to mistreatment, by trained dogs working as guard, police or military animals, or during a random encounter.
Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a diverse group of tropical infections that are common in low-income populations in developing regions of Africa, Asia, and the Americas. They are caused by a variety of pathogens, such as viruses, bacteria, protozoa, and parasitic worms (helminths). These diseases are contrasted with the "big three" infectious diseases, which generally receive greater treatment and research funding. In sub-Saharan Africa, the effect of neglected tropical diseases as a group is comparable to that of malaria and tuberculosis. NTD co-infection can also make HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis more deadly.
Vaccination of dogs is the practice of animal vaccination applied to dogs. Programs in this field have contributed both to the health of dogs and to the public health. In countries where routine rabies vaccination of dogs is practiced, for example, rabies in humans is reduced to a very rare event.
World Rabies Day is an international awareness campaign coordinated by the Global Alliance for Rabies Control, a non-profit organization with headquarters in the United States. It is a United Nations Observance and has been endorsed by international human and veterinary health organizations such as the World Health Organization, the Pan American Health Organization, the World Organisation for Animal Health and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The eradication of infectious diseases is the reduction of the prevalence of an infectious disease in the global host population to zero.
The rabies vaccine is a vaccine used to prevent rabies. There are several rabies vaccines available that are both safe and effective. Vaccinations must be administered prior to rabies virus exposure or within the latent period after exposure to prevent the disease. Transmission of rabies virus to humans typically occurs through a bite or scratch from an infectious animal, but exposure can occur through indirect contact with the saliva from an infectious individual.
Rabies is a viral disease that causes encephalitis in humans and other mammals. It was historically referred to as hydrophobia due to the symptom of panic when presented with liquids to drink. Early symptoms can include fever and abnormal sensations at the site of exposure. These symptoms are followed by one or more of the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting, violent movements, uncontrolled excitement, fear of water, an inability to move parts of the body, confusion, and loss of consciousness. Once symptoms appear, the result is virtually always death. The time period between contracting the disease and the start of symptoms is usually one to three months but can vary from less than one week to more than one year. The time depends on the distance the virus must travel along peripheral nerves to reach the central nervous system.
The prevalence of rabies, a deadly viral disease affecting mammals, varies significantly across regions worldwide, posing a persistent public health problem.
In animals, rabies is a viral zoonotic neuro-invasive disease which causes inflammation in the brain and is usually fatal. Rabies, caused by the rabies virus, primarily infects mammals. In the laboratory it has been found that birds can be infected, as well as cell cultures from birds, reptiles and insects. The brains of animals with rabies deteriorate. As a result, they tend to behave bizarrely and often aggressively, increasing the chances that they will bite another animal or a person and transmit the disease.
A vaccine-preventable disease is an infectious disease for which an effective preventive vaccine exists. If a person acquires a vaccine-preventable disease and dies from it, the death is considered a vaccine-preventable death.
One Health is an approach calling for "the collaborative efforts of multiple disciplines working locally, nationally, and globally, to attain optimal health for people, animals and our environment", as defined by the One Health Initiative Task Force (OHITF). It developed in response to evidence of the spreading of zoonotic diseases between species and increasing awareness of "the interdependence of human and animal health and ecological change". In this viewpoint, public health is no longer seen in purely human terms. Due to a shared environment and highly conserved physiology, animals and humans not only suffer from the same zoonotic diseases but can also be treated by either structurally related or identical drugs. For this reason, special care must be taken to avoid unnecessary or over-treatment of zoonotic diseases, particularly in the context of drug resistance in infectious microbes.
Mission Rabies is a charity that was initially founded as an initiative by Worldwide Veterinary Service (WVS), a United Kingdom-based charity group that assists animals. Mission Rabies has a One Health approach driven by research to eliminate dog bite transmitted rabies. Launched in September 2013 with a mission to vaccinate 50,000 dogs against rabies across India, Mission Rabies teams have since then vaccinated 968,287 dogs and educated 2,330,597 children in dog bite prevention in rabies endemic countries.
Sarah Cleaveland is a veterinary surgeon and Professor of Comparative Epidemiology at the University of Glasgow.
Rabies is a viral disease that exists in Haiti and throughout the world. It often causes fatal inflammation of the brain in humans and other mammals, such as dogs and mongooses in Haiti. The term "rabies" is derived from a Latin word that means "to rage"; rabid animals sometimes appear to be angry. Early symptoms can include fever and tingling at the site of exposure, followed by one or more of the following symptoms: violent movements, uncontrolled excitement, fear of water, an inability to move parts of the body, confusion, and loss of consciousness. Once symptoms appear, death is nearly always the outcome. The time period between contracting the disease and showing symptoms is usually one to three months; however, this time period can vary from less than a week to more than a year. The time between contraction and the onset of symptoms is dependent on the distance the virus must travel to reach the central nervous system.
Rabies takes an economic toll on Tanzania; costs due to rabies include medical expenses, control of infected dogs, and safety inspections in local communities. Rabies medication is also very expensive for the average Tanzanian.
A Foreign animal disease (FAD) is an animal disease or pest, whether terrestrial or aquatic, not known to exist in the United States or its territories. When these diseases can significantly affect human health or animal production and when there is significant economic cost for disease control and eradication efforts, they are considered a threat to the United States. Another term gaining preference to be used is Transboundary Animal Disease (TAD), which is defined as those epidemic diseases which are highly contagious or transmissible and have the potential for very rapid spread, irrespective of national borders, causing serious socio-economic and possibly public health consequences. An Emerging Animal Disease "may be defined as any terrestrial animal, aquatic animal, or zoonotic disease not yet known or characterized, or any known or characterized terrestrial animal or aquatic animal disease in the United States or its territories that changes or mutates in pathogenicity, communicability, or zoonotic potential to become a threat to terrestrial animals, aquatic animals, or humans."
Neglected tropical diseases in India are a group of bacterial, parasitic, viral, and fungal infections that are common in low income countries but receive little funding to address them. Neglected tropical diseases are common in India.
Animal vaccination is the immunisation of a domestic, livestock or wild animal. The practice is connected to veterinary medicine. The first animal vaccine invented was for chicken cholera in 1879 by Louis Pasteur. The production of such vaccines encounter issues in relation to the economic difficulties of individuals, the government and companies. Regulation of animal vaccinations is less compared to the regulations of human vaccinations. Vaccines are categorised into conventional and next generation vaccines. Animal vaccines have been found to be the most cost effective and sustainable methods of controlling infectious veterinary diseases. In 2017, the veterinary vaccine industry was valued at US$7 billion and it is predicted to reach US$9 billion in 2024.