Mt. Kulal Rabies Control |
Project of the rabies vaccination in N Kenya celebrates its 10th anniversary!Many thanks for your support! Stay with us! Mission: Rabies is a deadly disease of man persisting all around the African continent. Domestic dogs represent the major source of the infection and the vaccination of domestic animals is the ultimate answer to steeply raising incidence of rabies among the indigenous people of Northern Kenya.
Mt Kulal Rabies Control is an international cooperative initiative, currently headed by Vétérinaires sans frontières Czechia, aimed to introduce the dog-oriented preventive veterinary medicine in model localities in Marsabit, Loyiangalani, Laisamis and Samburu districts of Northern Kenya. Vaccination of dogs of local pastoralists against rabies is combined with rising the public awareness and access to the post-exposure treatment (PET) to minimize the impact of rabies on rural population and to prevent further lethal cases in humans. Success of this local project should encourage wider vaccination campaigns in Kenyan districts affected by rabies outbreaks. Mt. Kulal represents an ideal model site for such a study, as it is isolated, but having the basic infrastructure and moderate size of human and dog population.
Highlights:
Area covered: Around 20 settlements/villages of Samburu, Turkana, Rendille, Elmolo and Gabra tribes are included in the project, being dispersed in the area of several thousands of square kms of semiarid landscape around the south corner of Kenyan Lake Turkana.
Past and present: Project started as a private initiative in 2006. The success and cooperation of local communities encouraged its continuation and extending into further areas. Since 2006, yearly vaccination of dogs against rabies is carried out. As the outbreaks of rabies occurred repeatedly in herds of camels of Samburu and Rendille people in 2008 and 2009, these animals are also vaccinated whenever possible. A unique approach to the public awareness and rabies prevention is our “RabiesWatch” concept, which is based on close communication and collaboration with local communities. This centrally supervised network, consisting of trained local field assistants is in process of being established in all villages to assure the evidence of rabies cases, public awareness and the accessibility of PET. Nowadays, project is funded chiefly by Vétérinaires sans Frontières Czechia in collaboration with Kenyan NGO Lake Turkana Trust. Snake bite treatment was included into the spectrum of covered medical activities since January 2010 in Loiyangalani catholic mission hospital, from where the majority of cases of snake bites are reported.
Funding: Funds for field campaign are sought on yearly basis from various governmental/nongovernmental resources and private donors. Even small donation can help to save the life! The overall yearly budget is around 35,000 USD, including organizing the PET and snake-bite treatments. European students/vets are working as volunteers; Kenyan students of veterinary medicine are encouraged to participate in field vaccination campaigns.
Project manager:
Katerina Albrechtová, DVM VSF-cz and UVPS Brno This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Partners
We are further indebted to several subjects involved in organizing the field campaigns and helping with laboratory diagnostics
Furthermore, we are grateful to all the volunteers that participated on the project since its establishing in 2006 as well as to our sponsors.
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