ASEAN rabies community withstands the typhoon Nari

Vietnam currently holds the rotating presidency for the ASEAN and from 15-17 October the country kindly hosted a rabies workshop for ASEAN countries in the city of Da Nang (Vietnam).

A lot of progress has been made, both by the public health and the animal health bodies, since 2008, when countries first called for a regional rabies elimination strategy for ASEAN members.

This meeting’s objective was to bring together representatives of ASEAN, country focal points on rabies, international organisations, and NGOs (like GARC) to assist in the elaboration and synthesis of the ASEAN joint human-animal elimination strategy for rabies.

However, the typhoon ‘Nari’ (which literally means ‘beautiful woman’) hampered the participants’ eagerness to join this workshop. It made its abrupt appearance just when most participants were attempting to travel from Hanoi or Ho Chi Min City to the coastal city of Da Nang.

But the rabies community showed true commitment to advancing the ASEAN rabies strategy, regardless of the capricious typhoon! Immediately the stranded meeting participants got organised and spontaneously started exchanging comments on the draft strategy document from three separate locations across Vietnam. 

Luckily the typhoon moved away before the end of the meeting and all the participants could join together in Da Nang to celebrate the progress of the document and to discuss the next steps and meetings – hopefully without typhoons!

Contributed by Lea Knopf who attended the workshop on behalf of GARC