Volunteer based approach to dog vaccination campaigns to eliminate human rabies: Lessons from Laikipia County, Kenya

An estimated 59,000 people die from rabies annually, with 99% of those deaths attributable to bites from domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris). This preventable Neglected Tropical Disease has a large impact across continental Africa, especially for rural populations living in close contact with liv...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	PLoS neglected tropical diseases Vol. 14; no. 7; p. e0008260
Main Authors:	Ferguson, Adam W, Muloi, Dishon, Ngatia, Dedan K, Kiongo, Wangechi, Kimuyu, Duncan M, Webala, Paul W, Olum, Moses O, Muturi, Mathew, Thumbi, Samuel M, Woodroffe, Rosie, Murugi, Lucy, Fèvre, Eric M, Murray, Suzan, Martins, Dino J
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States Public Library of Science 01-07-2020 Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects:	Animal bites Animal vaccination Animals Autoimmune diseases Biology and Life Sciences Bites Collaboration Community-Institutional Relations Conservation biology Costs and Cost Analysis Counties Disease Dogs Domestic animals Ecology Environmental studies Evaluation Evolution Financing Fisheries Funding Grass roots movement Health aspects Health promotion Humans Infection control Infections Kenya Livestock Management Mass Vaccination - economics Mass Vaccination - veterinary Medicine and Health Sciences Methods Natural resources People and Places Population Population Density Population number Population statistics Prevention Public health administration Rabies Rabies - prevention & control Regions Rural areas Rural populations Studies Success Supervision Tropical climate Tropical diseases Tropical environment Vaccination Volunteerism Volunteers Wildlife Wildlife conservation Zoonoses Kenya United Kingdom > UK United States > US Africa Tanzania
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Summary:	An estimated 59,000 people die from rabies annually, with 99% of those deaths attributable to bites from domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris). This preventable Neglected Tropical Disease has a large impact across continental Africa, especially for rural populations living in close contact with livestock and wildlife. Mass vaccinations of domestic dogs are effective at eliminating rabies but require large amounts of resources, planning, and political will to implement. Grassroots campaigns provide an alternative method to successful implementation of rabies control but remain understudied in their effectiveness to eliminate the disease from larger regions. We report on the development, implementation, and effectiveness of a grassroots mass dog rabies vaccination campaign in Kenya, the Laikipia Rabies Vaccination Campaign. During 2015-2017, a total of 13,155 domestic dogs were vaccinated against rabies in 17 communities covering approximately 1500 km2. Based on an estimated population size of 34,275 domestic dogs, percent coverages increased across years, from 2% in 2015 to 24% in 2017, with only 3 of 38 community-years of vaccination exceeding the 70% target. The average cost of vaccinating an animal was $3.44 USD with in-kind contributions and $7.44 USD without in-kind contributions. The evolution of the Laikipia Rabies Vaccination Campaign from a localized volunteer-effort to a large-scale program attempting to eliminate rabies at the landscape scale provides a unique opportunity to examine successes, failures, and challenges facing grassroots campaigns. Success, in the form of vaccinating more dogs across the study area, was relatively straightforward to achieve. However, lack of effective post-vaccination monitoring and education programs, limited funding, and working in diverse community types appeared to hinder achievement of 70% coverage levels. These results indicate that grassroots campaigns will inevitably be faced with a philosophical question regarding the value of local impacts versus their contributions to a larger effort to eliminate rabies at the regional, country, or global scale.
Bibliography:	Current address: Gantz Family Collection Center, Field Museum of Natural History, South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois United States of America I have read the journal’s policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: membership in a government or other advisory board related to rabies elimination (DKN, MM, SMT, LM, and EMF) and relationships with organizations and funding bodies including nongovernmental organizations, research institutions, or charities (AWF, DKN, WK, DK, SM, and DJM).
ISSN:	1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735
DOI:	10.1371/journal.pntd.0008260