A dog may be a human’s best friend, but its bite could also be fatal, with India recording the highest human mortality rate worldwide due to dog-mediated rabies.
A group of scientists and their associates, who claimed that rabies control measures have been mostly “sporadic and knee-jerk”, have come together to help eradicate rabies spread by dog bite through proper study, analysis and result-oriented interventions.
A project, ‘Implementing a comprehensive One Health approach to eradicate dog-mediated rabies from India’, is currently underway in Northeast, with Dr Harish Tiwari, a veterinary epidemiologist, at the helm. “This project aims at generating empirical evidence of freedom from canine rabies in randomly selected rural, suburban and urban areas of the northeastern region by simultaneous application of multiple rabies control interventions under the umbrella of One Health,” Dr Tiwari said. “Using the data obtained from the project, we will develop a comprehensive context-based rabies eradication plan for the rest of the country,” he added.
One Health is a concept of how well-being and health of all living organisms is inter-linked and a robust balance is needed between a healthy environment, disease free animals and well-being of humans. He said India records the highest number of dog-bite injuries in the world causing more than 20,000 human deaths and enormous loss to the national economy annually due to rabies.
The project is under DBT-Wellcome Trust India Alliance Project, with the veterinarian and his team being hosted by IIT-Guwahati. Dr Tiwari has joined the newly started Jyoti and Bhupat School of Health Sciences and Technology (JBSHST) at the IIT-Guwahati as a DBT Wellcome India Alliance intermediate fellow for the project.