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Let’s Eliminate Rabies Together: Experts Weigh in on Account of World Rabies Day

Rabies Free Pakistan (RFP), a joint initiative of Getz Pharma and Indus Hospital & Health Network, held a webinar to commemorate World Rabies Day 2021. The webinar was attended by Managing Director & CEO at Getz Pharma, Khalid Mahmood, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Health Services, Dr. Faisal Sultan, Executive Director, NIH, Maj Gen Aamir Ikram, DG Health, Rana Muhammad Safdar, Program Director RFP, Dr. Naseem Salahuddin, Chief Biological Production, NIH, Dr. Ghazala Parveen and office bearers of local government.
The moderator Dr. Wajiha Javed, Project Director RFP & Head of Public Health Getz Pharma, initiated the conversation by informing the audience about Rabies Free Pakistan. RFP was established in 2018 to eliminate Rabies from Pakistan by 2030 using the One Health Approach. It is to be noted that the RFP program follows international standards and World Health Organization (WHO) approved protocols for this program in Pakistan. Mexico and Sri Lanka have set an outstanding example for the rest of the world by successfully eradicating Rabies by implementing empathetic methods of controlling the stray dog population. Mexico was the first country to obtain WHO validation for eliminating rabies as a public health problem through a sustainable, practical, and humane approach. Mexico achieved this incredible feat by implementing a national, government-led strategy to conduct mass dog vaccinations since the 1990s, implementing advocacy campaigns, timely diagnosis of rabies cases, and integrating the availability of post-exposure prevention in the country’s public health services. Sri Lanka led the way in what is termed as their Stepwise Approach Towards Rabies Elimination (SARE), focusing on the need to organize rabies eradication strategies through a multi-pronged approach across all sectors. According to SARE scoring, Pakistan (1.5) is behind the Philippines (3.5) and Bangladesh (2.5).
The RFP team is actively working on all fronts, including the advocacy and policy level, to ensure that all stakeholders currently involved in dog culling in Pakistan have a paradigm shift towards humane methods of vaccination and animal birth control (spaying and neutering) to control the dog population.
Rabies Free Pakistan team has achieved various milestones in the fight against rabies after successfully scaling up project operations and has vaccinated more than 30,000 dogs and neutered around 7,000 dogs since 2018. The opening note was given by Executive Director, NIH, Major Gen Aamir Ikram, who showed resolve to boost local production of rabies in NIH. Representatives of all provinces briefed the audience on the status of their respective provinces. The Project Coordinator of the Sindh Rabies Program appreciated Getz Pharma and Indus Hospital & Health Network for successfully operating the RFP project. Director Public Health, KPK, Dr. Nek Dad briefed about the rabies situation in KPK, and also stressed the importance of local government departments like livestock. Dr. Nasim Akhtar (PIMS) representative of Federal and Punjab presented the overall situation of rabies in the respective areas. In the second session, ‘One Health & Strategic Planning’ experts of health and environment talked about the impact on the human ecosystem in general. Dr. Naseem Salahuddin talked about the general level of awareness for Rabies in Pakistan, post-exposure prophylaxis, and different available treatment options. Renowned environmentalist Mr. Tofiq Pasha, Animal Rights Activist, Mr. Zain Mustafa, and RFP manager, Mr. Aftab Gohar discussed the importance of coexistence in society in order to protect the environment. All participants strongly condemned dog culling as a method to control rabies.
Getz Pharma’s Managing Director & CEO, Khalid Mahmood, made critical remarks regarding the effective control and prevention of rabies in the country. He said that all stakeholders need to contribute to the cause constructively. In this regard, he celebrated the Rabies Free Pakistan project, aimed to curb the spread of disease in Sindh. Khalid Mahmood highlighted the two-pronged approach (animal mass dog vaccination & birth control and human post-exposure prophylaxis) through which other countries like Sri Lanka and Mexico have successfully eliminated rabies. He showed resolve to continue working for the betterment of the environment as Getz Pharma has already been able to achieve Platinum Leeds Certification for its Astola Plant.
Dr. Faisal Sultan, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Pakistan, joined the session to talk about the federal government’s perspective on controlling and preventing rabies. SAPM Dr. Faisal Sultan argued that Federal Government would make rabies a notifiable disease, which in turn enables disease surveillance. Dr. Sultan insisted that the Government of Pakistan will create a national policy; however, the implementation needs to be done at the provincial level through an inter-departmental system (includes heath, livestock, and local government). On the query of the vaccine production, Dr. Sultan talked about the recently launched Biological Center in NIH, which will fill the local human vaccine shortage. Lastly, the SPAM stated that GOP would introduce awareness about the disease by adding it to the academic board.

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