GLOBAL ALLIANCE FOR RABIES CONTROL

• Elimination of human deaths from dog rabies by 2030 through the promotion of dog vaccination, appropriate human vaccination and education of at-risk communities and training of public and veterinary health professionals.

• Support national governments and civil society by providing training and capacity building, with a particular focus on resource poor African and Asian countries, where people are most likely to die of the disease.

• Create 'One health' regional rabies networks to share lessons learnt, provide training on latest available rabies tools and foster transboudary cooperation, as the disease does not recognise national boundaries.

• Where none exist, develop tools and training modules for public and veterinary health and community workers. Tools include national planning frameworks, laboratory capacity tools, rabies training for front-line community staff in local healthcare units and dog handlers.

• Work with key international human and animal health organisations (WHO, FAO, OIE) and civil society to develop global plans, advocacy and communication campaigns, which promote an intersectoral, collaboration (One health) approach to rabies elimination.

• Project teams based in Philippines and South Africa supporting national governments in Asia and Africa to build capacity and provide training. The teams further deliver e-training and education through customised workshops and online certification programs.

• Developed and coordinate the PARACON network (a network of 49 sub-Saharan countries with representatives from Ministries of Agriculture and Health), the ARACON network (with government representatives from 13 Asian countries) and the MERACON network (for countries from the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and Eastern Europe)
These networks help government to come together to share successes, learn about new tools, develop plans and assess progress made towards rabies elimination.

• Working with national and international partners including US CDC and FAO, developed multiple tools to support national governments, including Stepwise Approach Towards Rabies Elimination, Blueprint for Rabies Control, Rabies Educator Certificate, Animal Handling and Vaccination Certificate, Community Coordinator for Rabies Certificate and Rabies Healthcare Certificate.

• International team working with WHO, FAO and OIE to deliver global strategic plan to eliminate rabies.

1. Training and capacity building

• Education initiatives resulted in a decreased bite incidence among children.
• Increase in the knowledge of children related to rabies prevention measured pre/post study side studies. Following the successful pilots, we have been working with the Department of Education, Philippines to design and test the education program, which is now being rolled out nationally, benefitting an estimated 21 million students in 46 847 public schools.
• In-country capacity building workshops in Africa for development of rabies elimination strategies and workplans, training in diagnosis and surveillance, animal handling and vaccination.
• Following Covid-19, developed e-training plaform to faciliate the development/review of national rabies plans. Plans to carry out six national stakeholder meetings in 2021 using the platform and tools.

2. Networks & Tools

• The SARE assessment has been performed by 38/49 (78%) PARACON countries.
• 6 African countries have established decentralized laboratory diagnosis.
• Over 10,000 Certified Global Education Platform users.
• African Rabies Epidemiological bulletin developed with feedback from 33 focal persons - from 19 different African countries.
• Development of an Asian network (ARACON) and the conversion of MEEREB (the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and North Africa Rabies Expert Bureau) into MERACON, alongside the PARACON network (Africa).
• GARC developed, tested, and rolled-out a Community-Based Rabies Surveillance System (CBRS). Alongside the Rabies Treatment Tracker, it provides a full suite of surveillance tools integrated into the Rabies Epidemiological Bulletin.

3. Global Advocacy

• Zero by 30 campaign launched with WHO, FAO, OIE and multiple stakeholders.
• WHO, FAO, OIE endorse GARC's vision of zero human deaths worldwide by 2030.
• Developed joint Zero by 30 Global Strategic Plan to end human deaths by 2030.
• Coordination of annual World Rabies Day, a global day of awareness and action - hundreds of events registered each year and resources shared with thousands in rabies endemic countries