World Rabies Day is held every year on September 28 to raise awareness and advocate for rabies elimination globally. It is an event designed to be inclusive, uniting people, organizations, and stakeholders against rabies. The World Rabies Day theme for 2024 is “Breaking Rabies Boundaries”, which was chosen to highlight the need for progress and moving beyond the status quo, where achieving rabies elimination in time with the global goal remains an unlikely prospect for large parts of the world.

Rabies elimination is a complex task that goes beyond simply vaccinating a dog, which is also why rabies is one of the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). There remain many boundaries that prevent the global community from eliminating the disease and achieving the goal of zero dog-mediated human rabies deaths by 2030. To make progress and achieve our goals, we need to focus on breaking those boundaries and expanding beyond the norm to ensure that we continue to progress toward elimination. Some examples of the boundaries that can, and must, be broken to achieve rabies elimination are listed below.

Breaking boundaries…

  • between diseases: Breaking disease siloes in alignment with the WHO NTD roadmap;
  • among sectors: Continuing to highlight the importance of the One Health approach and the need for joint action among sectors;
  • of human rabies prevention: With the pledged support of GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, limitations and barriers to human rabies vaccine accessibility can be more feasibly overcome;
  • that prevent cooperation and collaboration: Breaking those boundaries that prevent improved cooperation and collaboration between stakeholders whether on a local, national (inter-ministerial), regional or international level. Aligning with the United Against Rabies (UAR) Forum Partnership Map;
  • in approaches and technologies: Encouraging the use of novel and progressive approaches, tools, and technologies. Aligning with the UAR Forum Toolbox among others;
  • to dog vaccination and reaching 70% coverage: Highlighting approaches, tools, support and the will to break the 70% vaccination coverage boundary in rabies-endemic countries – aligning with the UAR Forum workstream to “Barriers to dog vaccination”;
  • in scale: Breaking the restrictions preventing programs from scaling up beyond the “pilot” phase implementation;
  • in understanding and awareness: Changing perceptions and stereotypes, correcting misconceptions, and myths, and encouraging a broader understanding and awareness.

The list above is not exhaustive as we hope that every person – whether a layperson with an interest in rabies or a professional working towards its elimination – can see themselves within this theme. It allows for a focus on all the key aspects important for rabies elimination and aligns with global trends, goals, and needs.