Globally rabies causes death of about 2,700 people out of 100,000 populations every year. The disease affects dogs, humans and other domestic and wild animals. But more than 95 percent of the factors for the main cause of rabies, Melissa virus, are dogs. The prevalence of the disease follows the same trend in Ethiopia though there is a need to make further assessment on the prevalence. Senior Researcher with Ethiopian Public Health Institute Dr. Assefa Erissa, recalls that rabies occurred for the first time in Addis Ababa more than a century ago and later spread to other parts of the country gradually.
But throughout the times the country owned only one rabies laboratory which was established about 50 years ago which made it difficult to provide vaccination. However, currently, the laboratory could be distributed in the states of Amhara, Tigray, and Southern Nations, Nationality and People of Ethiopia. The states are selected based on its relative affected by the rabies diseases. But the laboratory will be established to the remaining states in the short upcoming period. In various parts of Ethiopia Dogs are kept as pets at homes and as assistants to cattle herders. As a result dogs enter in to grazing lands and transmit the diseases to other animals like red fox which is one of the tourist attractions of the country.
Veterinary Health Director at Ministry of Agriculture Dr. Meseret Bekele says people and animals are highly infected by Rabies in Ethiopia as it is transmitted through dogs lick, nip, and the like. Due to the fatality of the disease, the Ministry of Agriculture has taken various preventive actions like working in collaboration with stakeholders, awareness creation to the society, and training experts, among others. Rabies is so dangerous with a high likelihood of killing infected humans. Fortunately it is possible to prevent it simply with by vaccination. Yet Ethiopia is still struggling hard to control the diseases. As to her, lack of skilled manpower, budget allocation, weak animal management, and weak collaboration among stakeholders and others are serious factors that hinder the rabies prevention effort across the nation.
As per international standards, countries are required to vaccinate about 70 percent of their total dog population so as to eliminate the diseases efficiently. Awareness creation, strong linkage among stakeholders, independent institutions, and adequate skilled manpower are playing vital role to achieve the intended goal in Ethiopia, Assefa noted. Dr. Osuman Wondmagne, Zone-tic diseases scientist with Ethiopian Public Health Institute on his part said that, lack of due attention, poor animal handling system and lack of information about the exact number of dogs in Ethiopia are factors that hinder the disease prevention.
In addition to this, scarcity of vaccinating is other serious hurdle to adequately prevent the diseases across the nation. Until recently, only two hospitals in Addis Ababa namely St. Paul’s Hospital and Akaki sub city health center provided vaccination to prevent the diseases. But this number raised to eight hospitals recently, which means all ten sub cities have their own rabies diseases vaccination center. Dr. Assefa says there is lack of due attention by government and absence of mutual understanding among experts on how to control the diseases.
When some experts agree that killing dogs is best, others insist on scientifically avoiding the diseases through vaccinating. Dr. Assefa says Ethiopia is working with World Health Organization (WHO), US Center for Disease Control (CDC), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to realize its main objective, agenda 2030: No one should die of rabies. Dr. Osuman says different stakeholders including international donors are actively engaged in the discussion, it was noted that the issues indicates serious and it needs strong linkage among the participants and societies. For this end a road map was prepared by ‘’National Rabies Disease Prevention and Control Committee’’ two years ago to realize the expected goal.
The committee was composed from different partners, and they discuss each other’s in order to identify the challenges, strongest, and weakness of them. These also significant to set the solution which things should take priority action in the next working periods. In addition to this, the road map aims to building laboratory power, strength surveillance, empowering capacity of experts, and identifying the dogs which have owners helps to prevent the diseases in sustainable manner.
The Ethiopian Herald May 11/2019
BY MESERET BEHAILU
