Tanzania vaccinating stray dogs to keep human rabies at bay

ARUSHA, Tanzania

On a cloudy Saturday evening last March, Collins Limo was strolling with his friend on dusty terrain in the Sakina suburb of the Tanzanian city of Arusha when he was attacked by a furious stray dog.

The enraged dog, with its mouth laden with white foam, charged out of the bush lining the dirt road.

“I tried to climb on a nearby tree, in fear,” Limo, 19, recalled. But he tripped and fell. The dog lunged at him and repeatedly bit him on the leg before his friend scared it away by hurling a stone.

After Limo limped home, his mother rushed him to the hospital where doctors recommended he be immunized against rabies.

Limo’s mother was asked to buy three doses of a life-saving vaccine from a drug store. He was injected and a few days later his wound started to heal. He knows he was lucky, although he is afraid of rabid dogs.

Many others are less fortunate. Approximately 59,000 people die from rabies worldwide every year, almost all infected by dogs.

Malaria, HIV and tuberculosis take much higher tolls. But the horrible suffering and symptoms caused by rabies are terrible.

“All these problems will be eliminated when stray dogs across the country are vaccinated and sterilized,” said Consolata Onditi, a senior municipal veterinary epidemiologist based in the northern Arusha city.

Vaccinating, sterilizing stray dogs

On the eve of the April 24 World Veterinary Day, health authorities in the East African country embarked on a mass campaign to vaccinate and surgically sterilize stray dogs to prevent dog bites and the spread of rabies.

More than 2 million stray dogs roam the streets of Tanzania. They are scavenging for food and often breed indiscriminately on the streets leading to a surging population and potentially deadly spread of zoonotic diseases.

Onditi said the campaign is aimed at controlling the population of rabid canines and reducing the incidences of human rabies caused by stray dogs.

“This campaign is being implemented in phases. The idea is to get all stray dogs in Arusha and elsewhere vaccinated and where possible surgically sterilized,” she said.

Onditi said mass vaccination against rabies helps establish herd immunity in dogs and cuts the transmission chain of deadly viruses to humans.

“Several vaccination centers have been set up across the city. Every single dog will be inoculated,” Onditi told Anadolu Agency.

Identity collars

According to her, red and blue collars are being used for the identification of vaccinated dogs for the first and second rounds respectively.

“We have several dog-catching nets that help our staff to administer the jabs,” she said.

According to her, 1,345 stray dogs in Arusha municipality have been identified and will be vaccinated and surgically sterilized in the course of a month.

Although foreign dog lovers have for years been trawling the streets of Arusha, looking for stray dogs, winning their confidence and feeding them, however, no one was responsible for vaccinating them.

“When dogs are vaccinated without being sterilized, they may end up having several puppies in a year and the circle starts again,” said Onditi.

Although almost all cases of rabies in Tanzania are caused by dog bites, many citizens are unaware of the looming danger and the importance of treating dog bites immediately. Even if they know the danger, veterinary epidemiologists say they often get one or two rabies shots and fail to finish the last dose.

Jab administration

In the Ngaramtoni area in Arusha municipality, local residents are huddled with their dogs ready to get free shots.

Under the shade of a tree, John Lupongo, a senior vet in the area, wields a hypodermic needle. He tells a heavily built young man to grasp the neck of his dog.

As the dog leaps away, Lupongo adeptly walks off and then circles back behind the dog and jabs the needle into its thigh.

"This one was tricky," he muttered.

Mostly, the animals cooperate. Over several weeks, the team vaccinated 145 dogs.

A poster with the message “Beware rabies kill” placed on a brick wall in Sakina suburb tells a grim story of young children who have been mauled by a pack of stray dogs roaming the streets of Arusha.

“It's very dangerous to let children go to school on their own. These dogs are a threat to our children’s lives,” said Huruma Swai, a resident of Arusha.