Important steps towards a rabies free N’Djamena

Chadian Veterinary and Health workers have shown true passion in fighting rabies by conducting the first dog vaccination campaign covering the whole capital, N’Djamena.

During three months of work-filled weekends from October to December 2012, 18639 dogs, 1484 cats and 104 primates were vaccinated free of charge and the effort has paid off with a final coverage of 71% acheived.

The rabies incidence has since dropped dramatically and the last detected case was reported on the 20th March 2013.

This success story is thanks to the strengths of three Institutions joined in a real and mutual partnership. The Institut de Recherche en Elevage pour le Développement (IRED), the state veterinary laboratory, provided personnel (including young scientists) and logistics, the Centre de Support en Santé International (CSSI), a local NGO, was in charge of medical supervision and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) contributed vaccines, material and research guidance.

The campaign was officially launched on World Rabies Day, 28th September 2012 with a short ceremony during a symposium sensitising people to the disease.

Real hands on vaccination in town began one week later. Our ten teams, with 3 vaccinators each were vaccinating every Friday to Sunday. All dogs vaccinated were marked with a blue plastic collar and paint mark on the trunk.

A fixed-post vaccination strategy was used and proceeded from district to district, from west to east. The positions of the ten posts were discussed with district and quarter chiefs and always allocated to a block chief’s house. These block chiefs kindly provided tables and chairs and in many cases even tea and meals.

Town authorities played a major role in sensitizing the population to the campaign. In addition posters were put up, broadcasts on national and local radio stations were commissioned, and residents informed by loudspeaker one day before and on the day of vaccination in each zone.

On Monday to Tuesday, interviewers were sent out to households in the previously vaccinated zone to assess the proportion of owned dogs that had been vaccinated.

In addition, a team went out 4 times (morning and evening on two consecutive days) on a random transect to count roaming dogs with and without collars or paint marks to calculate the coverage at street level.

These two surveys allowed the team to model the proportion of ownerless dogs in the different zones and estimate the total dog population size and overall vaccination coverage.

This rabies campaign brought not only success in terms of control of the disease, but also awoke in all the participants a sense of their power to bring about change. It also considerably boosted the awareness of the Chadian people of the danger of rabies.

We hope to keep this spirit of purpose, value and merit alive in the Chadian community not only for rabies control but also for other one health priorities.

We thank the Chadian Ministry for Pastoral Development and Animal Production, the Chadian Ministry for Public Health and the Municipality of N’Djamena with all the district, quarter and block chiefs for the administrative support, the UBS Optimus foundation for funding the Swiss TPH part of the project and the Merial company for providing us with vaccines, collars and certificates at a discounted price.

Most importantly we are very grateful to all the owners, young and old, who brought their animals for vaccination and to all committee members, vaccinators, supervisors and interviewers who contributed their effort to this successful intervention!

Contributed by Monique Léchenne, a PhD student at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute who played a central role in the vaccination campaign.