Newsletter Issue 61

World Rabies Day, the biggest day in the rabies prevention calendar, is only a few weeks away on September 28th. Even if you aren’t  personally involved in an event this year, you can still tell the world about the rabies champions you know and ensure that their work reaches a much bigger audience. 

A newly updated section has been launched on the GARC website to provide a more comprehensive overview of the progress made by governments working in collaboration with GARC.

To help drive rabies control efforts towards disease elimination, an in-country Stepwise Approach Towards Rabies Elimination (SARE) workshop was conducted in Sri Lanka with GARC facilitating and providing technical support.

In preparation for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) meeting in June 2019, a Stepwise Approach towards Rabies Elimination (SARE) workshop was held in New Delhi, India to assess its progress in rabies control. It was conducted  from 6–8 June, with federal representatives from various ministries, including the Animal Husbandry Commissioner and the Joint Secretary of Livestock Health. 

GARC’s Community-Based Rabies Surveillance (CBRS) project was implemented in the Philippines in February 2019, and now that the CBRS system has been in place in Poblacion Village for 6 months, the use of a more active surveillance system has resulted in an increase in reportable rabies events in 2019 compared to the previous year. Additionally, as of August 2019, a total of 8 confirmed animal rabies cases were detected in the entire city, compared to just 5 during the same time period in 2018. 

Four British friends decided to turn their planned triathlon adventure into a charity fundraiser, raising funds of nearly £10K for GARC and other organizations. They were inspired after hearing Professor Sarah Cleaveland, a highly regarded researcher from the University of Glasgow, speak at the Royal Society about her work in rabies control and the challenges facing rabies-endemic countries.