Haiti Gets Regional Support for Rabies Control

Efforts to fight rabies in Haiti have gotten a boost from Brazil, Canada, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic through a technical cooperation among countries (TCC) project coordinated by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

The TCC comes as recognition of and support for joint efforts by the country's health and agriculture sectors, which helped reduce cases of human rabies by nearly half between 2006 and 2007.

"Haiti's efforts are an excellent example of the health and agriculture sectors working together under the concept of 'one medicine' involving animal and human health," says Cristina Schneider, PAHO's top expert on rabies. "With this cooperative effort, countries are showing their solidarity with what Haiti is trying to achieve."

Haiti has for decades had the highest incidence of human rabies of all Latin American and Caribbean countries.As recently as 2006, it accounted for 11 of the total 29 dog-transmitted cases in the Americas.

Following stepped-up vaccination and control efforts, the number of reported cases fell to five in 2007. Jean-Phillipe Breux, technical officer in PAHO's country office in Port-au-Prince, attributes the success to strong national commitment, effective coordination between the agriculture and health sectors, and support from PAHO and its member countries.

The PAHO TCC project, formalized late last year, includes $180,000 to reinforce Haiti's rabies control efforts as well as 500,000 doses of vaccine donated by Brazil. Brazil has donated rabies vaccine to Haiti several times in the past, including in 2004–2005 for a major canine vaccination effort in Cité Soleil, the struggling inner-city sector of Haiti's capital.

As a whole, Latin America and the Caribbean have dramatically reduced cases of human rabies since 1983, when PAHO member countries launched a regional effort to eliminate transmission of the disease from dogs to humans. As part of this effort, PAHO member countries have vaccinated more than 40 million dogs yearly and spent some $40 million annually on surveillance, training, education, and treatment for people who have been exposed.

The efforts have paid off with a 90 percent decline in all human cases: from 355 in 1983 down to 26 in 2007.

Haiti last year vaccinated nearly 200,000 dogs, and health officials are hoping that number will increase to 400,000 by 2008.

Schneider says the international support will increase Haiti's chances of meeting that goal. "It means not only more vaccine but also more support to make sure the vaccine really reaches communities across the country."

Both the vaccination efforts and Haiti's new Rabies Control Action Plan are the result of the joint work of experts from Brazil, Canada, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, France, Haiti, the Inter-American Institute on Agriculture (IICA), PAHO's PanAmerican Foot and Mouth Disease Center (PANAFTOSA), and the World Health Organization (WHO).

"We see this TCC as a real success story and particularly significant because Haiti is one of PAHO's priority countries," said Mariela Canepa, of PAHO's Country Support Unit.