- Vaccination professional in the remote Maasai communities of the Tanzania
In Maasai pastoral communities living to the east of the Serengeti National Park (north-western Tanzania) rabies poses a substantial threat to human health and wildlife populations. Simple central-point vaccination is not an effective strategy in these communities because households are dispersed, the population is nomadic and dogs are not used to restraint, making it difficult for individuals to bring animals to a vaccination station. Therefore, vaccination teams visit households each year, by vehicle or on foot, to deliver parenteral vaccination house-to-house.
Despite being costly and operationally difficult, this strategy has resulted in sufficient levels of coverage that have led to the elimination of rabies in this area with enormous benefits for its people and animals.
See Kaare et al (2009) here for more information on this case study.
Rabies education through early childhood intervention