FAO Collaborates With Government On Accessibility to Rabies Vaccines

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations says it is working with the Nigerian government to make Rabies vaccines available and more accessible to Nigerians.

National Coordinator, FAO Emergency Centre for Trans-boundary and Animal Diseases (ECTAD), Dr Ayo Majekodunmi disclosed this at a symposium for school children organised by the FAO in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and other stakeholders to mark the 2021 World Rabies Day.

“One of the major challenges that we have in Nigeria is the fact that we don’t have that much of the vaccine, whether it is the vaccine for dogs and the preventive vaccine for people. We need to improve on the amount of vaccine that we have in the country, although the vaccine is available in our general hospitals and primary health care centers, but not available everywhere.”

“The FAO, WHO and OIE are trying to assist the government of Nigeria to see how we can make these vaccines more widely available to see how we can make the awareness of the facts more available.”

Higher Risk

She noted that the reason for targeting school children for the symposium is because young children are at higher risk of contracting rabies, as they are most prone to getting beaten by dogs and dogs are the main reservoir of rabies.

“As part of our world rabies day celebration, we are having a symposium for school children from schools around the FCT, the reason for these school children symposium is that young children are at very high risk of contracting rabies because they are most prone to getting beaten by dogs”

“We believe very strongly that if we educate our children, they will be able to pass on this information to their parents, friends and they will continue to spread the fact and reduce the fear of rabies in our communities.”

Create Awareness

She said there was a need to create awareness about how rabies is being transmitted and what could be done to prevent it.

On his part, the Director of veterinary and pest control service of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Nigeria, who was represented by Dr James Balami said the government was committed to supporting states with vaccines and needed resources to meet the 2030 target of eradicating rabies.

“The department of veterinary and pest control services will continue to support states with vaccines and other resources to meet the target of eliminating rabies by 20230 as set by the tripartite organisation of WHO, OIE and FAO,” he said.

Rabies is a viral disease that causes inflammation of the brain in humans and other mammals.

It is a zoonotic disease (transmitted from animal to human) usually, through a bite by an infected animal, although scratches from an infected animal may also be risky.

Hallucination

As the disease progresses, infected persons can experience delirium, abnormal behaviour and hallucinations, they also begin to express fear for water also known as Hydrophobia and foaming in the mouth.

World Rabies Day was launched in 2007 and the date September 28 was chosen to commemorate the death of Louis Pasteur who created the first Rabies vaccine and laid the foundations of rabies prevention.

Lateefah Ibrahim