The Vietnam Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in coordination with Lao Cai People’s Committee and international organizations co-organized the conference “Rabies prevention and control in key provinces” and the World Rabies Day response meeting on “Rabies, sharing the message. Saving lives” in Lao Cai city, Lao Cai province.

Image/Robert Herriman
Image/Robert Herriman

In recent years, the prevention of rabies in Vietnam has been promoted and achieved certain results. However, rabies has always been one of the infectious diseases with the highest number of deaths.

Year-to-date, human rabies deaths in Vietnam total 67. This compares to 78 in all of 2015, 91 in 2016 and 74 last year.

The conference highlighted the dangers of rabies in circulation in key provinces and spread to other provinces.

The objectives of the conference are:

  • Strengthen the role of the Provincial People’s Committees in guiding and participating in rabies prevention and control activities and allocating funds to strengthen the prevention of rabies in the 16 most affected provinces.
  • Expand vaccination points and provide adequate vaccines against rabies in humans, increasing the rate of rabies vaccination for people bitten.
  • Increase the rate of rabies vaccination for dogs and manage dogs correctly.
  • Strengthen intersectoral cooperation between the health sector and animal health sector to eliminate rabies in humans and animals

Aiming to reach agreement with the international community on the eradication of rabies in the near future. At the rally, delegates from ministries and agencies jointly signed a commitment to control and eliminate rabies in 2030.


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