Livestock Management Services (LMS) and Livestock Health Management and Care Foundation (LMCH) have commenced free vaccination against rabies in some rural communities in the FCT in commemoration of 2023 World Rabies Day (WRD).
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that WRD is annually commemorated on Sept. 28 to raise awareness about rabies prevention and to highlight progress made towards tackling the menace.
NAN also reports that the global observance day has ‘All for One: Health for All’ as the theme for 2023.
The Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of LMS, Dr Abubakar Muhammed, told NAN on Thursday that the communities covered by the free vaccination are in the suburban areas of Bassa-Airport, Kuje, Lugbe, Kutunku-Gwagwalada, and Nyanya-Jikoyi axis of the federal capital.
Muhammed said the provision of free vaccination is part of the organisation’s corporate social responsibility, adding that more than 2,000 dogs and 28 cats have so far been vaccinated.
He explained that the gesture was geared towards achieving the objectives of the 2023 commemoration to end rabies by the year 2030 by ramping up the vaccination of dogs, responsible for over 90 per cent of human rabies infections in Nigeria.
The CEO identified LMS and LMCF as leading organisations dedicated to promoting animal health and welfare through public health interventions using a one-health approach.
Muhammed said the organisations are carrying out a series of public enlightenment and advocacy activities, as well as stakeholder engagements.
According to him, the organisations are also making efforts to use clinical students in the 11 veterinary faculties and colleges across the country to cover proximate and catchment communities for the universities.
He said, ‘The communities around our 11 veterinary faculties and colleges will escalate this initiative to gain wider vaccination coverage across the country in the next five years to achieve a rabies-free world by 2030.’
‘The World Rabies Day, inaugurated in September 2007, aims to raise awareness and advocate for the global elimination of the dreaded rabies disease by 2030.
The day, coordinated by the Global Alliance on Rabies Control (GARC), is marked annually on Sept. 28, the anniversary of the death of Frenchman Louis Pasteur.’
Muhammed said Louis Pasteur was a great microbiologist renowned for the discovery of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation, and pasteurisation.
‘His feat in research led to the understanding of the causes and prevention of diseases and, by doing so, laid the foundation of hygiene, public health, and modern medicine,’ he said.
The CEO said that the 2023 theme of the global observance is apt as it focuses on the need for collaboration, the importance of equality, and strengthening the overall health system by ensuring that good health is not for a selected few.”
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