World Rabies Day – September 28, 2021
World Rabies Day is the first and only global day of action and awareness, started in 2007 and dedicated to rabies prevention raising its awareness and bringing together partners to control efforts worldwide. 15th World Rabies Day will be celebrated on 28th September 2021 and to celebrate this milestone, this year’s theme focuses on facts about rabies and dispelling any myths or misconceptions. In short, the theme reminds us of key current global issues that also affect rabies elimination, namely:
• Fake news and how this can negatively affect our rabies elimination efforts.
• Vaccine hesitancy and the misconceptions about vaccination.
While rabies is a 100% preventable disease, more than 59,000 people die from the disease around the world each year. Major health organizations including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) external icon, the World Health Organization (WHO)external icon, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE)external icon, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)external icon have pledged to eliminate human deaths from dog-transmitted rabies by 2030.
Theme of 2021: “Rabies: Facts, not Fear”.
The theme for World Rabies Day 2020 was “End Rabies: Collaborate, Vaccinate”– you can help by keeping pets up to date on their rabies vaccination, and collaborating with doctors, veterinarians, educators, community workers, policy makers, and others in community to raise awareness around rabies prevention and control.
So let’s use facts to raise awareness and educate others about rabies — a 99% fatal, yet 100% preventable disease and work together to spread facts, and not fear, this World Rabies Day!
