Dataset Information

Volunteer based approach to dog vaccination campaigns to eliminate human rabies: Lessons from Laikipia County, Kenya.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:An estimated 59,000 people die from rabies annually, with 99% of those deaths attributable to bites from domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris). This preventable Neglected Tropical Disease has a large impact across continental Africa, especially for rural populations living in close contact with livestock and wildlife. Mass vaccinations of domestic dogs are effective at eliminating rabies but require large amounts of resources, planning, and political will to implement. Grassroots campaigns provide an alternative method to successful implementation of rabies control but remain understudied in their effectiveness to eliminate the disease from larger regions. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:We report on the development, implementation, and effectiveness of a grassroots mass dog rabies vaccination campaign in Kenya, the Laikipia Rabies Vaccination Campaign. During 2015-2017, a total of 13,155 domestic dogs were vaccinated against rabies in 17 communities covering approximately 1500 km2. Based on an estimated population size of 34,275 domestic dogs, percent coverages increased across years, from 2% in 2015 to 24% in 2017, with only 3 of 38 community-years of vaccination exceeding the 70% target. The average cost of vaccinating an animal was $3.44 USD with in-kind contributions and $7.44 USD without in-kind contributions. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE:The evolution of the Laikipia Rabies Vaccination Campaign from a localized volunteer-effort to a large-scale program attempting to eliminate rabies at the landscape scale provides a unique opportunity to examine successes, failures, and challenges facing grassroots campaigns. Success, in the form of vaccinating more dogs across the study area, was relatively straightforward to achieve. However, lack of effective post-vaccination monitoring and education programs, limited funding, and working in diverse community types appeared to hinder achievement of 70% coverage levels. These results indicate that grassroots campaigns will inevitably be faced with a philosophical question regarding the value of local impacts versus their contributions to a larger effort to eliminate rabies at the regional, country, or global scale.

SUBMITTER: Ferguson AW

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7331976 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Volunteer based approach to dog vaccination campaigns to eliminate human rabies: Lessons from Laikipia County, Kenya.

Ferguson Adam W AW Muloi Dishon D Ngatia Dedan K DK Kiongo Wangechi W Kimuyu Duncan M DM Webala Paul W PW Olum Moses O MO Muturi Mathew M Thumbi Samuel M SM Woodroffe Rosie R Murugi Lucy L Fèvre Eric M EM Murray Suzan S Martins Dino J DJ

PLoS neglected tropical diseases 20200702 7

<h4>Background</h4>An estimated 59,000 people die from rabies annually, with 99% of those deaths attributable to bites from domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris). This preventable Neglected Tropical Disease has a large impact across continental Africa, especially for rural populations living in close contact with livestock and wildlife. Mass vaccinations of domestic dogs are effective at eliminating rabies but require large amounts of resources, planning, and political will to implement. Grassr ...[more]

PMID: 32614827

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Project description:An increasing number of countries are committing to meet the global target to eliminate human deaths from dog-mediated rabies by 2030. Mass dog vaccination is central to this strategy. To interrupt rabies transmission from dogs to humans, the World Health Organization recommends that vaccination campaigns should be carried out every year in all dog-owning communities vaccinating 70% of their susceptible dogs. Monitoring and evaluation of dog vaccination campaigns are needed to measure progress towards elimination. In this study, we measured the delivery performance of large-scale vaccination campaigns implemented in 25 districts in south-east Tanzania from 2010 until 2017. We used regression modelling to infer the factors associated with, and potentially influencing the successful delivery of vaccination campaigns. During 2010-2017, five rounds of vaccination campaigns were carried out, vaccinating in total 349,513 dogs in 2,066 administrative vaccination units (rural villages or urban wards). Progressively more dogs were vaccinated over the successive campaigns. The campaigns did not reach all vaccination units each year, with only 16-28% of districts achieving 100% campaign completeness (where all units were vaccinated). During 2013-2017 when vaccination coverage was monitored, approximately 20% of vaccination units achieved the recommended 70% coverage, with average coverage around 50%. Campaigns were also not completed at annual intervals, with the longest interval between campaigns being 27 months. Our analysis revealed that districts with higher budgets generally achieved higher completeness, with a twofold difference in district budget increasing the odds of a vaccination unit being reached by a campaign by slightly more than twofold (OR: 2.29; 95% CI: 1.69-3.09). However, higher budgets did not necessarily result in higher coverage within vaccination units that were reached. We recommend national programs regularly monitor and evaluate the performance of their vaccination campaigns, so as to identify factors hindering their effective delivery and to guide remedial action.

Project description:We conducted a cross-sectional survey to better understand the barriers to attendance at canine rabies vaccination campaigns in Haiti. A structured community-based questionnaire was conducted over a 15-day period during May-June 2017, focused on socio-economic status correlated with participation at canine rabies vaccination campaigns. Questions phrased as a bidding game were asked to determine individuals' willingness to pay (WTP) for dog rabies vaccination and willingness to walk (WTW) to fixed-point vaccination campaigns. The Kaplan-Meier estimator was applied to determine relationships between survey variables. Logistic regression was used to examine factors associated with participants' WTP and WTW. A total of 748 households from eight communities were surveyed. Respondents were predominantly female (54.4%) and had a median age of 45 years. The total number of owned dogs reported from households was 926, yielding a human-to-dog ratio in dog-owning households of 5.2:1. The majority of dogs (87.2%) were acquired for security, and 49% were allowed to roam freely; 42.0% of dog owners reported that they were unable to manage (or restrain) their dogs using a leash. Seventy per cent of dog owners were willing to pay up to 15.9 gourdes (0.25 USD) and/or walk up to 75 m to vaccinate their dogs. Households that owned free-roaming dogs, owned dogs for the purpose of companionship and owned dogs that they were unable to walk on a leash were associated with a higher WTP for vaccination. Living in Artibonite Department, having a middle or higher household income, and owning a dog for security purpose were associated with a higher WTW for vaccination. Low leash use and propensity for dogs to roam freely are barriers to successful fixed-point vaccination methods in Haiti, and alternative methods such as door to door (DD), capture-vaccinate-release (CVR) or oral vaccination should be explored. There may be some prospect for fee-for-service vaccination in Haiti; however, this programme should be introduced as a supplement, rather than a replacement for free rabies vaccination programmes so that mass dog vaccination is not discouraged.

Dataset Information

Volunteer based approach to dog vaccination campaigns to eliminate human rabies: Lessons from Laikipia County, Kenya.

Publications

Volunteer based approach to dog vaccination campaigns to eliminate human rabies: Lessons from Laikipia County, Kenya.

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