Zero by 2030 and OneHealth: The multidisciplinary challenges of rabies control and elimination

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), rabies is estimated to cause ∼59,000 human deaths annually, with 95% of cases occurring in Africa and Asia [3,4]. The Global Strategic Plan to End Human Deaths from Dog-mediated Rabies by 2030, launched in June 2018, targets the disease at the dog reservoir and aligns efforts to prevent human rabies and strengthen animal and human health systems. The efforts against rabies should comprehensively consider the need for a multidisciplinary OneHealth response [23–27] at multiple levels, which enable a better understanding amongst complex interactions between human and animal health with the shared environment [28], not only the integration of actions between the WHO, the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH/OIE) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), that set the target for global dog-mediated human rabies elimination by 2030 [29]; but at community levels by multidisciplinary teams in the control and prevention of disease in humans and animals. [...]multisectoral engagement and approach are critical under the umbrella of OneHealth collaboration, including community education, awareness program, and vaccination campaigns [1,30].