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World Rabies Day 2010

The global response to World Rabies Day, first celebrated on 8 September 2007, illustrates widespread recognition of the need for action to control this devastating, but easily preventable disease. Strong partnerships were forged with key international and national organizations, partners and a multitude of professional organizations and networks. The event has since been held yearly, with great success and increasing participation.

Working Together to Make Rabies History!

The World Rabies Day campaign is committed to its objective of raising awareness and resources to enhance prevention and control of rabies, with the overall vision of successful human rabies prevention and elimination of dog-to-dog transmission of rabies. We will continue to invite local, national and global rabies prevention stakeholders to be partners in this important initiative.

The expected outcome of cross-agency partnering activities is to encourage and support coordinated rabies vaccination of dog populations, education of humans about the risk of rabies and when to seek post-exposure prophylaxis, and facilitating access to human rabies biologicals—most especially post-exposure prophylaxis.

Help Make Rabies History! 

Rabies is a terrible, yet preventable disease with approximately half of all human rabies deaths occurring in children under the age of 15. Unfortunately, rabies continues to cause considerable suffering for people and their animals and can also have a devastating impact on livestock and wildlife populations.

Campaign Overview

The objective of World Rabies Day is to raise awareness and enhance prevention and control of rabies. The inaugural campaign on 8 September 2007 was celebrated globally as a great success and an important step forward for rabies prevention and control, following by an even more widespread event in 2008. The Alliance for Rabies Control (ARC), in collaboration with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), was proud to spearhead this effort with tremendous partnerships from numerous international leaders in the field of rabies. The World Rabies Day coordinating team is particularly appreciative of the many volunteer World Rabies Day event coordinators around the world.

Outcomes & Achievements to Date

Making a Difference: World Rabies Day (WRD) has truly become the focal point for all countries to effectively promote rabies prevention. Since the inaugural Campaign in 2007, WRD events have taken place in more than 120 countries; helping to educate almost 100 million people and vaccinate nearly 3 million dogs worldwide. The WRD Coordinating Team would like to thank all of the partners and volunteers around the world that continue to make the campaign a great success!

Record Performance: This year, at least 300 events were held in 105 countries, involving 775,000 people. Early reports indicate that an estimated 20 million people were educated through seminars, public service announcements, and mass media and vaccination clinics held in conjunction with WRD observances, which helped vaccinate 1.3 million dogs.

Shelter Outreach: WRD is working closely with organizations in China, India, Nicaragua, Pakistan and the United States. Partnering with the Humane Society of the United States, youth educational articles reached 35,000 classrooms in 2009 and helped educate approximately 1 million children.

Veterinary Outreach: Thanks to our partners, WRD outreach packages were mailed to 10,000 veterinary clinics and Colleges of Veterinary Medicine across the globe continue to embrace and energize WRD. This year, the European Commission kicked-off their annual Veterinary Week on World Rabies Day, highlighting its importance as the embodiment of "Animals + Humans = One Health" and encouraging the collaborative participation of veterinary and medical organizations throughout Europe.

Did you know that 100 children die from rabies each day? 

You can make a difference! Educate - Vaccinate - Donate. Go to WorldRabiesDay.Org

Communications

The WRD web site continues to be the top resource for global rabies education materials. Each month, 10,000 visitors from over 200 countries and territories come to the web site to download resources contributed by individuals and organizations around the globe. We invite you to share your rabies education materials!

Tweet it! 

WRD is harnessing the power of social networks to provide Campaign news and updates. Thanks to our "followers", educational messages are instantly disseminated throughout the world. Please visit our Twitter, Facebook and YouTube channels and sign-up on worldrabiesday.org to receive and help disseminate our updates. You can help us educate someone about rabies!

Global Network

WRD has established a global network of half a million rabies advocates! Previously non-existent, the network serves partly as a listserv to disseminate news but also allows for a more participatory approach to rabies control. Join our network today and help us spread our message even further! 

World Rabies Day is an initiative of the Alliance for Rabies Control, of which PAHO is proud to be a sponsor. The World Rabies Day Team would like to thank all of our partners from numerous organizations throughout the world who helped make the first World Rabies Day a success. Special thanks to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), World Health Organization (WHO), Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Rabies Resources

PAHO Press Release: English | español

Rabies Elimination Speech by PAHO Director Dr. Mirta Roses: English |  español

Advocacy: Public-education presentations (PowerPoint, 2 Mb, 8/17 slides with notes; meant for use in local events, training sessions, or classrooms)
General: English | español | français | português
Classroom learning: English | español | français | português

Video: Elimination of Dog-Transmitted Human Rabies: English | Spanish

Materials for children from PAHO's Monica's Gang Series

Monica and her puppy

comic book for children

Caring for Your Pet (set of 4 videos)

Down with Rabies!
Comic book on rabies prevention 
   English |  español | 
   français |  português

Videos in Spanish and Portuguese available here.

More on Rabies in the Americas

Trust Fund Project on Neglected Diseases

 

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