Rabies in West Africa, a forum to coordinate regular meeting among governments and stakeholders in one-health, was inaugurated in December, 2012 to link Anglophone and Francophone West African countries in the surveillance and control of rabies. It aims to disseminate progress reports on rabies surveillance and control activities in West Africa. Its first conference was jointly sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria and the University of Ibadan Centre for Control and Prevention of Zoonoses. The 2nd conference was held concurrently with the 20th Congress of the Ghana Veterinary Medical Association. The scientific programme included 2 lead papers, 9 symposia and a roundtable discussion. The presented papers which focused on: (i) knowledge, attitude and practices among native community stakeholders; (ii) clinical detection and outbreak investigations; (iii) national laboratory diagnostic activities and vaccination records; (iv) wildlife infection study; and (v) spatial or spatio-temporal distribution of dog bite victims with suspected, probable and confirmed rabies exposures from three countries namely, Ghana (7); Nigeria (4) and Liberia (1). The conference gave consensus report that rabies has remained a neglected disease in West Africa and therefore deserves one-health approach for its control and prevention alongside a stepwise eradication in domestic dogs and humans.

Madina, 28 - 31 October 2014
Organizers: The Society for Rabies in West Africa
Date published: 11 Dec 2017