Angola: OIE donates Rabies Vaccines for Rabies Elimination

Handing over ceremony of OIE donation of rabies vaccine to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Republic of Angola

Rabies is a public health problem in Angola and around 200 people die of rabies every year. To take advantage of the positive dynamics regarding rabies control in Angola the OIE Rabies Vaccine Bank, with the support from the European Union funded ‘Strengthening Veterinary Services in Developing Countries’ Project, delivered 140,000 doses of rabies vaccines to Angola on 15 December 2019 to facilitate the mass dog vaccination campaign.

The Minister and the Director of the Veterinary Services thanked the OIE for the donation and ensured that the vaccines will be used for the mass dog vaccination campaigns in southern Angola.

Technical discussion on rabies between Veterinary Services Officials and OIE. Picture (c) ISV, 2020 

Technical Discussion on Rabies Elimination Campaign

In addition to the handing over of the vaccine, the following aspects were discussed with the officials of the Veterinary Services Institute:

1. Implementation modalities of a rabies vaccination campaign in the four Provinces of Southern Angola. The vaccination campaign will be conducted in May 2020.
2. The team visited a dog quarantine facility at Cacuaco, located in one of the municipalities in Luanda Province. It has large quarantine facilities (146 sheds) where rabies suspect dogs are brought and kept under observation for 10 -14 days.
3. Discussed on rabies elimination campaign in Luanda. Luanda has the highest human rabies deaths in Angola with around 70 deaths every year.
4. The team also visited the vaccine storage cold room where OIE donated vaccine was stored in Luanda.

The Angolan Veterinary Services will be supported in its efforts to successfully implement and operationalise their rabies elimination strategy through capacity building activities, including training of the vaccinators and delivery of the Global Alliance for Rabies Control Data Logger to capture vaccination data, vaccination equipments, and laboratory capacity building and surveillance.

Group photo after the vaccine handing over the event with the Agriculture Minister, Angola. Picture (C) ISV, 2020

Dog quarantine facility at Cacuaco, located in one of the municipalities in Luanda Province. Picture (C) Tenzin Tenzin (OIE) 2020

Technical discussion on vaccination campaign and post-vaccination survey, Luanda, Angola