Rabies diagnostic course for Veterinary Health workers in N’Djamena.
July 27, 2013
From 14th to 15th November 2012, 24 veterinary health workers and veterinarians participated at a rabies diagnostic course in N’Djamena, Chad.
Each veterinary delegation in the country was invited to send a representative to participate in this course and some technicians from the IRED were also chosen to attend. Our honourable guest expert was Prof. Charles Rupprecht, former Head of the Rabies Unit of the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta and now Head of Research with GARC.
The course focused on the Direct Rapid Immunohistochemical Test (DRIT) established by Prof. Rupprecht. This test can be read with a normal light microscope and thus is more suitable in remote, low income areas than the Fluorescent Antibody Test (FAT), which requires a more technically and financially demanding immunoflurescent microscope.
The first day of the training was dedicated to lessons in theory of rabies epidemiology and testing, presentation of the epidemiologic situation and diagnostic possibilities in Chad and ended with a vivid discussion round on the treated topics.
Prof. Rupprecht was joined by Prof. Idriss Alfaroukh, director General of the IRED, Prof. Jakob Zinsstag, representative of the Swiss TPH, Mr. Service Naissengar, Head of the IRED Rabies Unit, Mrs. Rolande Mindekem, Geographer and Chadian Health Expert, and Ms. Monique Lechenne, PhD student.
The second day included practical demonstration and hands on experience. Participants learned different methods to dissect a dog and gain the brain material for testing. Samples from negative experimental animals were then supplemented and mixed with negative and positive brain samples from the collection at the rabies laboratory.
All participants had been vaccinated against rabies using the 3 doses pre-exposure schedule, before to the course, to protect them whilst handling infected material and learning to recognize the virus under the microscope.
Separated into four teams, each guided by an experienced supervisor, the attendees had to perform the DRIT test on 10 samples and decide on a negative or positive result.
The successful session was completed with a presentation of the actual results and a final discussion round and participants were certified to have attended and completed the course.
In future, the aim is to equip certain veterinary offices in the provinces with DRIT test kits, to strengthen rabies surveillance across the whole country, not just the greater N’Djamena area.
The rabies unit at the IRED will become the national reference laboratory and ensure diagnostic quality and central data collection.
The course was hosted by the Institut de Recherche en Elevage pour le Développement (IRED), in collaboration with the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) and the Global Alliance for Rabies Control (GARC), and was part of a joint training week on zoonotic diseases together with the TB Unit at the IRED and kindly sponsored by the Welcome Trust through the Afrique One consortium.
Contributed by Monique Léchenne, a PhD student in Prof. Zinsstag’s group at Swiss TPH