World Rabies Day 2022: Theme, Significance & History

World Rabies Day is celebrated each year on September 28 as a tribute to Louis Pasteur - the inventor of the first effective rabies vaccine in the world.

World Rabies Day is celebrated each year on September 28 as a tribute to Louis Pasteur – the inventor of the first effective rabies vaccine in the world. The day is observed to promote the fight against Rabies, raise awareness of its prevention, and celebrate the achievements the world has made against this deadly disease.

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What is Rabies?

Rabies is a fatal but preventable viral disease, which is spread to people from the saliva of infected animals. It is transmitted through animal bites usually from stray dogs or dogs who have not been vaccinated. The symptoms of the disease include headache, extreme fever, excess salivation paralysis, mental disorder, and confusion, eventually leading to death in some cases.

World Rabies Day 2022: Theme

According to the World Health Organisation, the theme of World Rabies Day 2022 is ‘Rabies: One Health, Zero Deaths.’ The theme is to emphasize the connection between the environment, people, and animals. One Heath in the theme represents the vulnerabilities of the health system but also sheds light on how magnanimous they can achieve with collaboration across sectors. Zero Deaths means that the world has all the medicines, tools, vaccines, and technologies to eradicate the disease, and ‘zero deaths’ should be the end goal.

World Rabies Day 2022: Significance

On the day, a network of international government agencies, NGOs, and vaccine manufacturers use World Rabies Day as a tool to organize events, conferences, and campaigns led by experts to assist in the eradication of the disease. The government also announces plans and policies to progress toward the goal. In the long-term goal, the Global Strategic Plan for the eradication of this dog-mediated is aimed to be Zero deaths by 30 (2030).

World Rabies Day: History

The first-ever World Rabies Day campaign took place back in 2007. The campaign began as a partnership between many organizations including the Alliance for Rabies Control, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. This was headlined by the co-sponsorship of the World Health Organization, the World Organisation for Animal Health, and the Pan American Health Organization.

After three consecutive years of celebrating World Rabies Day, it was estimated that prevention and awareness events took place in more than 100 countries and over 100 million people were educated about the dangers of contracting rabies. Meanwhile, 3 million dogs were also vaccinated.

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