The global strategy “Zero deaths from rabies among humans by 2030” has become the basis for the development of national plans to eliminate this deadly disease in various countries. Dr. Galib Abdulaliyev, Permanent Representative of this country to the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), spoke about the rabies control program in Azerbaijan. He presented at the seminar “One Health for the European Region”, which was held in Vienna in June.
Today, the population of Azerbaijan is more than 10 million people. About 45% of the country’s citizens live in an urban environment, the rest in rural areas, where people have more contact with animals. The problem of rabies is relevant for Azerbaijan. Last year, almost 44 thousand cases of human bites by animals were recorded (dogs – 33.7 thousand cases, cats – 8.4 thousand, rats – 879, other animals – more than 1 thousand). Not all residents of Azerbaijan know about the rules of rabies prevention and the need for vaccination after animal bites. This led to tragic consequences. In 2023, three people in Azerbaijan died of rabies.
Animals infected with rabies are detected in Azerbaijan every year. So, in 2023, 20 sick animals were found: 4 cases among domestic dogs and cats, 6 cases among stray animals, 8 cases among cattle, 1 among small cattle, 1 among wild animals.
The fight against rabies has become a priority goal for the veterinary services and health authorities of Azerbaijan.
The key task is to eliminate rabies by vaccinating animals and raising people’s awareness of the rabies problem.
In January 2023, bait briquettes with oral rabies vaccines for immunization of wild animals were distributed in Azerbaijan over an area of 500 km. Vaccines were delivered by small aircrafts.
In February 2024, vaccine baits were scattered over an area of 855 km.
In 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Global Alliance against Rabies (GARC) adopted a common “Zero deaths from rabies in humans by 2030 year.” strategy
The strategy includes large-scale vaccination of dogs against rabies, informing people about the prevention of this disease and access to rabies vaccines for bite victims.
According to WOAH, up to 70 thousand people die from rabies in the world every year. Most of the deaths occur in Africa and Asia. In 99% of cases, people become infected through the bites of infected dogs. Therefore, the main goal of the strategy is to eliminate human mortality from rabies transmitted by dogs.
In 2020, the United Against Rabies Partnership was established. Now this group includes more than 65 organizations that work to implement the objectives of the strategy. One of its points is epizootic supervision – control over the cases of the virus in populations of domestic and wild animals, as well as rapid response in case of an outbreak of infection.
