As a UK based charity, Mission Rabies launched in 2013 to actively work towards fighting rabies in the endemic areas of the world. Their mission is to eradicate what is the world’s deadliest disease by 2030. In order to save lives, Mission Rabies has a programme based on the advice of the World Health Organisation to eliminate the disease.
Through the ‘One Health’ approach, considering the connection that all animals, humans, and the environment have is a big step towards controlling rabies.
What is Rabies?
As a zoonotic disease, rabies is a virus that is transmitted through both saliva and tissues. Around 95% of rabies cases in humans are transferred from dogs, and through the ‘One Health’ approach Mission Rabies vaccinates 70% of the dog population in an area in order to create herd immunity.
With a fatality rate of almost 100%, this illness kills an estimated 59,000 lives every year from dog bites. As the disease is spreading through neglect and lack of resources, there is a need for effective rabies elimination programmes, which Mission Rabies is a response to.
Mission Rabies Projects
On its first year, the charity began with a pilot project in 60,000 dogs were vaccinated in India, in only 28 days. Following this success, Mission Rabies expanded to other areas such as Malawi, Goa and Ranchi, and India and Blantyre, three key projects in the charity’s mission.
Through the aid of other partner charities, Mission Rabies has teams of staff permanently vaccinating dogs in the areas. Vaccination campaigns, community education, and volunteering work in undertaken annually, including vaccination campaigns in Tanzania, Uganda, and Sri Lanka. These countries represent hotspots for rabies, and Mission Rabies has vaccinated more than 500,000 dogs to this day.
How We Helped
As the charity also relies on education local communities in order to help stop the spread of the disease and to ensure dogs are brought in to be vaccinated, silicone wristbands have been a helping factor.
The Mission Rabies wristband has been distributed in order to incentivise people to take their dogs to be vaccinated, each project site containing a unique design. Hundreds of thousands of Mission Rabies wristbands have been distributed through our support, ensuring that the charity’s message is spread and to help them in their rabies elimination projects!
Mission Rabies said: “Thanks to the great support from Silicone Wristbands, we have been able to distribute hundreds of thousands Mission Rabies wristbands – helping us to spread the word and recognising everyone participating in our projects.”
We couldn’t be more proud to support this important charity as they do great and vital work around the world. Their projects in vaccinating dogs, both with owners and not, has helped reduce the number of rabies deaths in Goa. 17 human deaths were reported in the state in 2014 before Mission Rabies began their work, a number which fell to five in 2015, and the last recorded human death was in December of that same year.
Mission Rabies has an App in which you can see all of the charity’s recorder work and data on dog populations, and the important steps towards eradicating rabies. If you want to get involved and give Mission Rabies a helping hand with a donation or in any other way, make sure to visit their website!
And if you want to build your own silicone wristbands, take a look at our band builder.
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