Tanzania Turns To Mass Dog Vaccination And Smarter Surveillance Against Rabies Spread

Salama Issa watched successful helpless daze arsenic her seven-year-old boy was group upon by a stray canine successful Mmongo village, successful nan Lindi region of Tanzania.

Recalling nan horrifying infinitesimal six months ago, she told SciDev.Net: “I had sent him to get my telephone charged astatine a neighbour’s place.

“I heard him scream, ‘Mamaaa! Mamaaa!’ By nan clip I ran to him, nan canine had already sunk its teeth successful his thigh. He was bleeding.”

Thanks to bold action, smart science, and organization power, we are supporting Tanzania to move nan tide.”

Kennedy Lushasi, elder investigation scientist, Ifakara Health Institute

Frantic, Issa rushed her boy to nan colony president who advised her to spell to Sokoine Hospital successful Lindi town, wherever nan boy received injections to supply contiguous protection from rabies.

“I was scared. People successful my organization were saying my boy would get ‘Kichaa cha mbwa’

[rabies] if he didn’t get treated early,” she says, her sound still laced pinch nan panic of that moment.

1,500 deaths and rising

Salama’s communicative is not an isolated case. Although her boy was fortunate to person survived nan bite, galore crossed Tanzania are not.

According to nan World Health Organization (WHO), astir 1,500 group dice each twelvemonth from rabies infections caused by a rabid canine bite, pinch children successful mediocre communities worst affected.

For those who tin entree nan rabies vaccine, nan afloat bid of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) vaccines costs around US$100, an magnitude acold beyond nan scope of  galore group successful Tanzania wherever much than 40 per cent of nan organization autumn beneath nan world poorness line, earning little than $US2.15 a day, according to the World Bank.

This economical obstruction intends that rabies costs and deaths proceed to airs a nationalist wellness threat contempt interventions.

However, aft decades of investigation and a coordinated nationalist effort, scientists opportunity nan communicative is changing.

By 2030, Tanzania intends to halve deaths from rabies wrong 3 years and trim nan costs by US$10 million, nether the Zero by 30 strategy, which intends to extremity quality deaths from rabies by 2030.

The roadmap has been recognised globally, pinch Tanzania’s nationalist rabies power strategy officially endorsed by nan World Organisation for Animal Health successful 2025.

‘One Health’ focus

Kennedy Lushasi, a elder investigation intelligence astatine nan Ifakara Health Institute (IHI) who has been researching rabies for decades, is assured nan extremity tin beryllium met. The key, he says, is simply a coordinated “One Health” attack that tackles nan illness astatine its source.

“For years, we focused connected treating quality victims, which is some costly and often excessively late,” Lushasi tells SciDev.Net.

“But acknowledgment to bold action, smart science, and organization power, we are supporting Tanzania to move nan tide.”

He says he teamed up pinch institutions for illustration nan University of Glasgow to tackle nan problem astatine its root — nan dogs — pinch nan extremity of breaking nan transmission concatenation wholly by vaccinating nan animal population.

Lindi, nan region wherever Salama’s boy was bitten by a canine and survived, is 1 of respective areas wherever Lushasi’s squad has led large-scale canine vaccination campaigns successful rabies hotspots. Others see Serengeti and Mtwara successful Tanzania, and Pemba successful Zanzibar.

The strategy, he says, is to vaccinate astatine slightest 70 per cent of nan dogs to create herd immunity, meaning that capable animals successful an area are immune to nan microorganism to extremity it spreading.

On nan land of Pemba, disconnected nan seashore of Tanzania, Lushasi tells SciDev.Net that wide vaccination resulted successful nan elimination of rabies, and nan land has remained free of nan illness for complete 7 years.

Overcoming obstacles

But location are barriers to reaching each those who could use from nan vaccine.

“Our villages are very distant, sometimes 50 to 80 kilometres from town,” says Naseeb Mokoa, a livestock serviceman for Lindi municipality.

A deficiency of energy successful galore agrarian areas poses a important situation for preserving vaccines, which must beryllium kept astatine a somesthesia of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius.

Mokoa besides laments nan debased nationalist consciousness astir rabies.

“Many group don’t understand nan dangers of rabies,” he says.

“When told they person to salary for nan canine vaccination, astir refuse. Community members are only motivated erstwhile they’ve witnessed a personification aliases a canine successful their area get rabies.”

To flooded these obstacles, nan IHI squad developed caller cooling containers to sphere vaccines and mobile apps for real-time search of vaccination coverage.

This data-driven attack has allowed researchers to place areas pinch debased coverage, wherever caller outbreaks are astir likely.

Researchers opportunity this accent connected grounds and information has been a cardinal facet successful Tanzania’s advancement successful tackling nan disease.

‘Staggering losses’

The communicative of Salama’s boy is 1 of quality suffering, but nan effect of rabies extends beyond nationalist health, according to Ahmed Lugelo, a veterinary interrogator pinch Global Animal Health Tanzania.

“The economical losses from this illness are staggering, particularly for our pastoral and agro-pastoral communities,” says Lugelo.

“In Tanzania’s Mara region this year, we saw a azygous family suffer 8 cows, worthy complete 6.4 cardinal shillings (US$ 1,800), to rabies aft they were bitten by a rabid animal astatine night.

“These are not conscionable statistics. These are families being pushed into poorness because a preventable illness wiped retired their full root of income.”

In communities without vaccination campaigns, group are stoning dogs to decease owed to fears of being bitten and catching rabies, according to Lugelo. But wherever vaccination is routine, dogs are accepted, cared for, and go portion of nan family, he says.

“Eliminating rabies isn’t conscionable astir redeeming quality lives, it’s astir protecting nan correct of dogs and different susceptible animals to unrecorded without fearfulness of persecution,” he adds.

Harnessing innovation

While challenges remain, nan attack utilized successful Tanzania provides a roadmap for nan remainder of nan continent, says Lugelo. He highlights nan occurrence of wide canine vaccination successful Tanzania, Kenya, and different African settings, wherever astatine slightest 70 per cent sum has halted transmission successful parts of these countries.

“Scaling wide canine vaccination is logistically achievable if governments, investigation institutions, and communities activity together,” he says.

“It requires beardown governmental commitment, pinch nationalist ownership, particularly by nan livestock and veterinary sectors — captious for securing fund allocations and vaccine procurement.”

A awesome obstacle is nan deficiency of reliable cold-chain accommodation beneath nan territory level. However, Tanzanian investigation and invention is helping reside this.

Thermotolerant rabies vaccines stored successful Zeepot — a clay-based passive cooler that keeps them safe without energy — allows vaccination campaigns to penetrate remote, off-grid areas, protecting much group and animals.

Human vaccination besides still has a domiciled to play. Gavi, nan Vaccine Alliance started supporting nan role-out of rabies vaccines done regular immunisation programmes successful 2024 successful much than 50 countries.

Lugelo adds that a cardinal portion of rabies power is nan strategy that connects veterinary and nationalist wellness services, known arsenic Integrated Bite Case Management.

“This dual strategy not only strengthens surveillance but besides ensures that costly quality vaccines are utilized efficiently and only erstwhile genuinely needed,” he explains, echoing Lushasi’s position that wide canine vaccination and integrated lawsuit guidance connection a robust, evidence-based model for eliminating rabies crossed Africa.

Scaling these strategies continent-wide will require sustained investment, location coordination, capacity building, and organization engagement, scientists say.

Lugelo adds: “Tanzania’s acquisition shows that these strategies are not only effective but besides feasible, making nan extremity of rabies elimination by 2030 an achievable reality”.