Microbiological Advances and Strategies Toward Zero Rabies Deaths by 2030

Dear Colleagues,

Every nine minutes, a person dies from rabies, with 40% of victims being children in Asia and Africa. As dog bites cause almost all human rabies cases, increasing awareness, vaccinating dogs, and administering life-saving treatment after bites can prevent deaths. We have the vaccines, medicines, tools, and technologies needed to prevent dog-mediated rabies.

In recent years, many countries have strengthened rabies control efforts by scaling up dog vaccination programs, making human biologicals for post-exposure and pre-exposure prophylaxis more accessible, and engaging communities on rabies prevention. Dog-mediated rabies has been eliminated in Western Europe, Canada, the USA, and Japan. Additionally, the majority of the Latin American countries are free of human deaths from dog-transmitted rabies. Significant progress has been made in reducing rabies deaths in countries such as Bangladesh, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Vietnam, and South Africa.

For a relatively low cost, it is possible to break the disease cycle and save lives. Investing in rabies elimination strengthens both human and veterinary health systems. A collaborative response through rabies programs contributes to disease prevention and societal preparedness. Integrated rabies elimination serves as a model for One Health collaboration.

In 2015, the world set a goal of zero human dog-mediated rabies deaths by 2030. Now, for the first time, four organizations, namely 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 for Rabies Control (GARC), have joined forces as the United Against Rabies collaboration, aiming to reach this goal.

The implementation of recent WHO guidance on accelerated human vaccination schedules (including dose- and cost-saving options for pre-exposure and post-exposure) and the WOAH's international standards for rabies diagnosis, vaccination, and control in animals will increase feasibility and simplify programmatic delivery, allowing countries to move forward with the Global Strategic Plan.

In this Special Issue, titled "Microbiological Advances and Strategies Toward Zero Rabies Deaths by 2030", we invite all colleagues working on developing, improving, or strengthening the WHO's three objectives in The Global Strategic Plan for affected countries to share their advances and results on this topic.

Dr. Nidia Aréchiga Ceballos
Guest Editor

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• rabies
• zero by 30
• rabies deaths