Vaccinate-assess-move method of mass canine rabies vaccination utilising mobile technology data collection in Ranchi, India

Abstract

BackgroundOver 20 000 people die from rabies each year in India. At least 95 % of people contract rabies from an infected dog. Annual vaccination of over 70 % of the dog population has eliminated both canine and human rabies in many countries. Despite having the highest burden of rabies in the world, there have been very few studies which have reported the successful, large scale vaccination of dogs in India. Furthermore, many Indian canine rabies vaccination programmes have not achieved high vaccine coverage.MethodsIn this study, we utilised a catch-vaccinate-release approach in a canine rabies vaccination programme in 18 wards in Ranchi, India. Following vaccination, surveys of the number of marked, vaccinated and unmarked, unvaccinated dogs were undertaken. A bespoke smartphone ‘Mission Rabies’ application was developed to facilitate data entry and team management. This enabled GPS capture of the location of all vaccinated dogs and dogs sighted on post vaccination surveys. In areas where coverage was below 70 %, catching teams were re-deployed to vaccinate more dogs followed by repeat survey.ResultsDuring the initial vaccination cycle, 6593 dogs were vaccinated. Vaccination coverage was over 70 % in 14 of the 18 wards. A second cycle of vaccination was performed in the 4 wards where initial vaccination coverage was below 70 %. Following this second round of vaccination, coverage was reassessed and found to be over 70 % in two wards and only just below 70 % in the final two wards (66.7 % and 68.2 %, respectively).ConclusionOur study demonstrated that mobile technology enabled efficient team management and rapid data entry and analysis. The vaccination approach outlined in this study has the potential to facilitate the rapid vaccination of large numbers of dogs at a high coverage in free roaming dog populations in India.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12879-015-1320-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Development of non‐governmental organisation‐academic partnership to tackle rabies in Africa and Asia

“…The Mission Rabies charity has developed a bespoke “Mission Rabies App” that allows the precise location of every health care intervention to be logged alongside key owner and dog demographic information (Gibson et al . , Gibson et al . ).…”

“…However, a great deal more can be achieved using this technology, for example, in areas where there are no accurate maps, vaccinating teams can be effectively coordinated in real time by showing the location of the vaccinating team alongside their daily zone of activity as set by a central coordinator (Gibson et al . , Gibson et al . ).…”

“…, Davlin & Vonville , Gibson et al . ). In other countries, rabies is simply not a high enough health priority to warrant significant preventive health care investment as many more people are affected by malaria or tuberculosis (Cleaveland et al .…”

“…, Gibson et al . ). The partnership aims to harness the energy, flexibility and responsiveness of an NGO with the technical expertise, experience and knowledge from an academic institute to collectively optimise the roll out and evaluation of novel health care initiatives.…”

Rabies, a Vaccine Preventable Disease: Current Status, Epidemiology, Pathogenesis, Prevention and Control With Special Reference to India

“…2015 Vaccinate-assess-move method of mass canine rabies vaccination was done using mobile technology data collection in Ranchi, India. Gibson et al (2015) 8.…”