Every year, dog bites that spread the rabies virus cause more than 59,000 preventable deaths – 99 per cent of them in Africa and Asia. This week on Africa Science Focus, we hear from Ahmed Lugelo in Tanzania, whose research team spent almost 15 years following around 50,000 dogs to find out why rabies still exists in the Serengeti district.
We learn about a potential new single dose human vaccine that could increase protection against rabies. And, our reporter Michael Kaloki speaks to Jacqueline Weyer at South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases to find out why rabies prevention strategies are so urgently needed.
This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Sub-Saharan Africa English desk.
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