Proof-of-Concept Study Reveals Feasibility of Eliminating Rabies in Africa

Swiss TPH The Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, together with European and African collaborators, carried out a mass dog vaccination in Chad and determined its effect on human rabies exposure. The study employed a bio-mathematical method for estimating the transmission dynamics of rabies. The researchers conclude that with political will and the necessary funding, elimination of rabies is possible in Africa.

(...) “If you want to prevent humans from dying from rabies in Africa and Asia, you need to eliminate dog rabies,”said Jakob Zinsstag from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), first author and principalinvestigator of a study in Science Translational Medicine. (Photo: Mass dog vaccination in Chad, 2013 / Swiss TPH)

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