PANAJI: Mission Rabies is going to take up a static point rabies vaccination campaign in Goa to ensure that people vaccinate their pet dogs and continue to keep the virus at bay.
The campaign will be carried out at government veterinary hospitals and dispensaries, besides key sub-centres across the state for two weeks and will be held every year thereafter.
The campaign will be launched on World Rabies Day, on September 28, and will go on till October 14.
The proposed schedule for the campaign will focus on one taluka per day.
“The static point rabies vaccination campaign is for owned dogs only, which will be free.
We will also be joining hands with NGOs and animal rescuers across Goa to help us with the campaign,” said Mission Rabies project manager, Julie Corfmat.
For the campaign awareness, the education team will be using a variety of channels such as social media, posters and a speaker vehicle that will make announcements in panchayat and municipal areas.
They had earlier carried out the campaign in Africa where they had a record of vaccinating 800 dogs in a few hours, making it 200 vaccine administrations every hour.
Given the Covid-19 pandemic, the Mission Rabies team said that they will be taking safety measures as per government norms.
TOI had reported on June 23 that Goa has acquired the status of a rabies-controlled state.
As of June 2021, there have been zero human rabies cases reported in Goa for over three years.
In addition to this, only eight dog mediated rabies cases were reported in the first six months of this calendar year.
Thus, making Goa the first state to become human rabies-controlled.