In line with the 2025 World Rabies Day theme, “Act Now: You, Me, Community,” the Global Alliance for Rabies Control (GARC) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, are urging shared responsibility and inclusive planning to ensure that national and community voices help shape rabies control priorities. Rabies remains a serious public health issue in over 150 countries, primarily in Asia and Africa, causing tens of thousands of deaths each year. Communities are making strides in prevention, demonstrating that structured capacity-building and local engagement can drive meaningful impact.
Initiatives such as GARC’s Communities Against Rabies emphasize dog vaccination, public education, and surveillance to reduce transmission in high-risk areas. Teachers, health workers, and local stakeholders are actively raising awareness and monitoring bite cases using GARC’s digital and educational toolkits. These efforts highlight that empowered communities are essential to achieving rabies elimination.
Despite progress, many people continue to suffer bites from unvaccinated dogs, and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) remains critical. Dog-mediated transmission causes 99% of human rabies deaths, yet access to affordable PEP is limited in many regions. GARC and Gavi stress that integrating rabies control into broader immunisation and primary healthcare strategies can ensure that resources reach the populations most at risk and that rabies prevention becomes a sustainable priority.
Experts emphasize that rabies is entirely preventable. Dr André Coetzer, CEO of GARC, noted that governments must embed rabies initiatives into long-term, strategic planning within national immunisation and One Health frameworks to ensure lasting impact. Similarly, Gavi supports eligible countries in expanding access to life-saving PEP and aligning rabies control with broader health system priorities, combining dog vaccination, public education, surveillance, and community engagement.
Both GARC and Gavi are calling for governments and technical partners to elevate rabies elimination as a national priority while ensuring community input informs decision-making. Countries are encouraged to integrate rabies prevention into national health plans, including immunisation strategies and national rabies elimination plans, particularly targeting high-burden areas, to safeguard lives and build stronger, more resilient health systems.
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