Tran
smi
ssion o
f rabie
s from animal
s to people con
tinue
s de
spi
te availabili
ty o
f good vaccine
s for bo
th human and animal u
se. The only e
ffec
tive
stra
tegy
to achieve elimina
tion o
f dog rabie
s and
the rela
ted human expo
sure i
s to immunize dog
s a
t high coverage level
s. We pre
sen
t the analy
si
s o
f two con
secu
tive paren
teral dog ma
ss vaccina
tion campaign
s conduc
ted in N&r
squo;Djamena in 2012 and 2013
to advoca
te
the
fea
sibili
ty and e
ffec
tivene
ss for rabie
s con
trol
through proo
f o
f concep
t. The overall coverage reached by
the in
terven
tion wa
s &g
t;70% in bo
th year
s. Mon
thly repor
ted rabie
s ca
se
s in dog
s decrea
sed by more
than 90% wi
thin one year. Key poin
ts were a coopera
tive collabora
tion be
tween
the
three par
tner in
sti
tu
tion
s involved in
the con
trol program,
su
fficien
t in
forma
tion and communica
tion
stra
tegy
to acce
ss local leader
s and
the public, care
ful planning o
f the prac
tical implemen
ta
tion pha
se and
the e
ffec
tive mo
tiva
tion o
f sta
ff.
spar0010">The dynamic and semi to non-restricted nature of dog populations in most rabies endemic areas is often considered to be a major obstacle to achieve sufficient vaccination coverage. However, we show that feasibility of dog mass vaccination is highly dependent on human determinants of dog population accessibility and the disease awareness of dog owners. Consequently, prior evaluation of the human cultural and socio-economic context is an important prerequisite for planning dog rabies vaccination campaigns.