World Rabies Day 2014 - roundup

Around the world there are more dedicated activists working to end rabies than ever before and World Rabies Day is a chance to celebrate that every single vaccine, volunteer, and advocate help bring that goal a step closer. 

Here is a brief summary of some of the highlights of World Rabies Day 2014:

Asia registered the greatest number of events – ranging from T-shirt design competitions for school children to mass dog vaccinations, to symposiums for experts. 

The power of World Rabies Day to multiply efforts was felt in Pondicherry, India. Dr. Johnson wrote to tell us how he and another organizer found each other and were able to join forces as a direct result of registering events on the World Rabies Day webpage.

On the African continent activities took place all the way from Tunisia to South Africa. Kenya launched its National Rabies Elimination Strategy – the significance of which is covered in this story. 

Meanwhile in America, several international organizations joined forces for the Pan American World Rabies Day 2014 Initiative. This aimed to continue momentum and remind stakeholders that, despite excellent progress in reducing the number of canine rabies cases in the region, complacency is fatal and more work needs to be done, particularly in hot spots like Haiti. 

In Europe, rabies is largely well controlled but nevertheless hosted various events ranging from fundraising to vaccinating the dogs of homeless people on the streets of Bratislava, Slovakia to awareness of rabies among Albania’s wildlife.

This year World Rabies Day also gave us an opportunity to celebrate something a bit different: rabies survivor Jeanna Giese married Scott Fraccasso and used the occasion to raise awareness of rabies and remind us all that miracles do happen.

Social media also played a large part this year. Beyond the Me and My Dog campaign, it has been great to connect with others working in the field and share their rabies prevention work. To get a flavour of the activity, go to https://tagboard.com/TogetherAgainstRabies/190720 And, if you’re on Facebook or Twitter, please connect with us.

Overall more events were registered and more countries than ever took part. The numbers are encouraging but your voice matters too: if you have any feedback or comments about World Rabies Day, please get in touch with the campaigns team. We’d love to hear from you.