The Cheap Team

The CHEAP Team on January 1st 2013, therefore launched a campaign tagged War Against Rabies on the Plateau using cartoon produced by Neil Pemberton. During which with her own funds, in order to educate the Kanke Local people about rabies, the ‘CHEAP Wars Against Rabies on the Plateau’ Team conducted community-based public awareness campaign and shared pamphlets, exercise books with information on facts about rabies, plastic bowls, buckets and hand-towels to participants.
In one of the rural communities during Dr. Kia’s study, someone died of what she thought was rabies, based on the history of mad dog bite and classical symptoms of rabies. Unfortunately, a child of less than 12years was accused of causing the death by witchcraft. There might be many similar or worst case scenarios as this in Nigeria and other rabies endemic countries globally and it must be stopped. Many have died due to ignorance; innocent people (especially children) are blamed as witches or wizards causing the deaths. This is heartbreaking as it destroys unity in families among others effects. War Against Rabies is a fight we can’t back out of. As Nigerians together with the world we will war and win the battle against rabies. By 2030 Nigeria and other rabies endemic countries will be proudly declared as a rabies-free.

Motivation

Dr. Kia’s passion for rabies elimination was evident by the way she actively took part in World Rabies Day (WRD) activities organized and coordinated by Dr. A.A. Dzikwi and Prof. J.U. Umoh in 2008 and 2009 in Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) of the Department of Veterinary Public Health and Preventive Medicine, ABU Zaria. She also participated in the Rabies workshop organized by Dr. Mrs. M.O.V. Osinubi, Prof. B.M. Jahun and Prof. A. B. Ogunkoya of the Department of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, ABU Zaria in 2010. Dr. Kia has decided to use her spare time to volunteer with many other professionals who believe in the vision to end Rabies in Nigeria and other Rabies endemic countries. War Against Rabies Foundation based on a ‘One Health concept’ involves various relevant professionals in order to control animal rabies and stop man’s exposure to rabies.
The War Against Rabies Team will work unitedly with all national (inter-ministerial collaborations, research institutes and other relevant national organizations involvements), regional, international stakeholders and relevant experts to ensure successful rabies control programmes in Nigeria and other rabies endemic countries globally to achieve the global rabies goal of a rabies free world by 2030. The Kaduna State Ministry of Agriculture (KSMA), MacArthur foundation, African Center of Excellence for Neglected Tropical Diseases and Forensic Biotechnology (ACENTDFB), University Health Services (UHS), Veterinary Teaching Hospital (VTH), The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (FVM) all in Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, and the College of Veterinary Surgeons Nigeria (CVSN), alongside their staff and students have supported in cash and/or kind the various rabies outbreak intervention campaigns which Dr. Kia successfully coordinated in September 2013, 2016.

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In 2017, Dr Kia was to conduct an ABU Rabies Intervention and Control Campaign (RICC) in Zaria Local Government Area in Collaboration with KSMA, MacArthur foundation, ACENTDFB, VTH, UHS, FVM and CVSN but unfortunately an industrial disharmony resulting in several months of National University Unions Strike action ensued which hampered RICC 2017 plans. Dr. Kia then resolved to bring back the War Against Rabies Dream to fruition with the hope of overcoming national barriers to win the war against rabies. Therefore, with encouragements of Prof. B.M. Jahun and a few other ABU professionals who have been part of the 2013 and 2016 Rabies intervention, Dr. Kia conducted in Zaria Local Government Area, the War Against Rabies Nigeria 2017 Campaign on Rabies Awareness to children ≥17 years of age in primary and secondary schools and on the road as well.

Principles

In order to achieve WAR Nigeria's vision of a rabies free Nigeria we follow key principles in our hands-on projects with animals and humans. Therefore, it should be recognised that :

• Domestic dogs transmit at least 95% of human rabies in Nigeria.
• Rabies control in dog saves lives and prevents human and animal rabies deaths.
• Elimination of rabies through mass dog vaccination is a cost-effective strategy.
• Elimination of rabies requires sustained yearly mass dog vaccination of minimum of 70% of dog population.
• Promoting rabies health education and awareness of all at risk population.
• Promote responsible dog ownership.
• Ensure availability and accessibility of post exposure prophylaxis.
• Creating awareness of Rabies to decision makers and the general public.
• Prevent outbreaks and loses to livestock.
• Improve Rabies surveillance and reporting in human and animal population for accurate data estimating disease burden in Nigeria.

The Problem

Rabies is a neglected disease which is endemic in Nigeria with almost 100% fatal rate in man. Rabies is also invariably fatal in livestock and other mammals. It kills up to 60,000 people a year of which 95% occurs in Africa and Asia. There is no estimated annual data of human deaths due to rabies in Nigeria. Studies conducted in sub-Saharan Africa show that most of the rabies cases in animals and humans are caused by canine rabies virus, transmitted by domestic dogs. Previous efforts for rabies prevention and control in Nigeria have been due to human post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), voluntary and ad hoc dog vaccinations. This approach has not been successful in bringing down the cases of rabies in animals and humans, owing to inadequate vaccination coverage and unavailable or unaffordable PEP for most of the affected individuals.

Why The Fight

Rabies is a viral disease that has been almost eradicated from Europe and the US, but continues to be a scourge in the developing countries of Africa and Asia. According to the World Health Organization, more than 50,000 people die from the disease each year. Rabies is famous for causing a fear of water, caused by paralysis of the swallowing muscles, but can sometimes manifest itself first as hypersexuality, due to inflammation of the brain. The disease predominantly affects children under 15 years old, and 99 per cent of cases are transmitted by dogs. Medical advice should be sought within 24 hours of being bitten, licked or scratched by a suspected infected animal. Medical treatment consists of an injection of antibodies into the area of the wound, followed by four further vaccinations over the following two weeks. By the time symptoms are present the disease is incurable and death will result. A recent successful programme of vaccination and management of dogs on the rabies black spot island of Bohol in the Philippines involved almost 15,000 local people as volunteers, combined with an education programme, which included schoolchildren, into the spread and management of the disease. The result was a dramatic reduction in deaths from rabies. As the author Alexander McCall Smith, patron of the Global Alliance for Rabies Control, recently said: "This is a disease not awaiting a great scientific breakthrough. The means of tackling it are already there. All that is required is the will to do something about it."