Rabies vaccinations at the rural-urban divide: successes and barriers to dog rabies vaccination programs from a rural and urban campaign in Zambia.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Dog vaccination against rabies is considered one of the most effective strategies at preventing human deaths from rabies and is a key strategy for eliminating dog-mediated human rabies deaths. Traditional vaccination approaches in Zambia rarely collect operational data to assess coverage and inform subsequent campaigns.

Methods

Following mass vaccination campaigns in rural (Itezhi tezhi) and urban (Lusaka) communities, we evaluated vaccination coverage achieved during the campaigns and characterized and estimated the dog population in these communities.

Results

Herd immunity (i.e., 70% vaccination coverage) was not achieved in the Lusaka campaign, likely due to challenges in pre-campaign community sensitization and distance to vaccination sites in the cen

SUBMITTER: Chazya R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11789232 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature