By Kemo Cham
Sierra Leone on Monday embarked on a mass vaccination exercise targeting 20, 000 animals prone to the rabies disease, the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) has said.
An official told Politico that the exercise was designed to coincide with the 2020 commemoration of World Rabies Day (WRD) which falls on September 28.
Rabies is a deadly virus transmitted by an infected animal, usually dogs and cats, which spreads through their saliva when they bite their victim. There are several other animals that are known to transmit the virus, including bats and foxes.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), dogs are the main source of human rabies deaths worldwide, contributing up to 99% of all rabies transmissions to humans, mainly in Asia and Africa. And in Sierra Leone, dogs are also the main causes of rabies.
Data from the Ministry of Health in 2019 indicate that on average three people out of every 100, 000 die from rabies infection. This amounts to 210 deaths annually from the disease.
The WRD is commemorated to raise awareness on the disease and review progress towards ongoing efforts to eliminate it globally.
This year’s theme for the commemoration focuses on advocacy for collaboration, reading: “End Rabies, collaborate, vaccinate to eliminate.”
The authorities identified designated areas in Freetown and across all districts in the country where people were told to take their pets for vaccination.
Stakeholders from the ministries of Health and Agriculture also convened a discussion forum to discuss progress in the ongoing efforts to eliminate rabies.
Ibrahim Sorie Koroma, information officer with the Health education Division in the MoHS, said the vaccination exercise was a “symbolic” one aimed at letting people know that it is good to take their animals for regular vaccination.
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