Mission Rabies

Who we are

Over 99% of cases of human rabies are caused by an infected dog bite. Once symptoms of the disease develop, it is always fatal.  Every year, millions of healthy dogs are inhumanely killed for fear of this deadly disease. However, this doesn't halt the spread of rabies, which causes the deaths of around 61,000 people a year – the majority of which are children under 15.

Vaccinating dogs against rabies has been proven to stop the spread of the disease to people and saves the lives of humans and dogs.  Education and community engagement is integral to our mass vaccination projects

Children are at high risk of dog bites and contacting rabies. Forty percent of reported rabies cases worldwide are children under the age of fifteen. In our project areas the paediatric proportion is often even higher. Rabies most often persists in poor communities and rural regions of developing countries in Africa and Asia. If the risks are widely understood and appropriate dog bite treatment is well known – rabies is 100% preventable. The financial burden of human treatment is high, control via dog vaccination costs ten time less and protects whole communities. Mass canine vaccination will rid an area of rabies, but this takes time during which communities remain at risk – whilst we work to eliminate the disease, education helps us save lives.