Chapter 21 - Strategies for the elimination of dog-mediated human rabies by 2030

Abstract

The achievability of rabies elimination is not debatable—as elimination has been demonstrated in several countries and territories on different continents. The question might rather be—what would be required to replicate this on a global scale and how soon can this be done? A recent global target of zero dog-mediated human rabies deaths by 2030 has been set by the international rabies community and our task should be to consistently advocate for this goal and the extensive benefits that would be reaped from such an achievement. In evidence, we have evaluated experiences and lessons primarily from rinderpest and smallpox—the only two diseases to have ever been eradicated. We identify key aspects, tools, and interventions that enabled eradication and compare these with what is available for rabies. Many commonalities were identified in the best-practices that could be gathered from the processes that enabled global eradication of smallpox and rinderpest. From this and considering the relative plethora of tools available to the rabies community, we conclude that rabies elimination is presently feasible. While its zoonotic nature presents added complexity, the elimination of dog-mediated human rabies would indeed be a particularly unifying achievement as far as the endorsement of the One Health approach is concerned.