The Contributions of STANDZ Initiative to Dog Rabies Elimination in South-East Asia
A Grant Agreement between the Government of Australia and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the Stop Transboundary Animal Diseases and Zoonoses (STANDZ), initiative includes a rabies component with an overarching intended outcome of reducing dog rabies incidence in targeted areas. This initiative envisaged regional rabies activities in South-East Asia as well as specifically designed pilot projects in the Philippines, Myanmar and Cambodia. While remaining anchored to the envisioned outcome, its implementation from 2013 to 2016 also leveraged on the resources made available through the initiative to strategically generate tools, materials and examples that can potentially bridge long-standing gaps on dog rabies elimination in the region. This included developing approaches on rabies communication strategy, risk-based approach for the prioritization of mass dog vaccination, rabies case investigation, post-vaccination monitoring, building capacity through pilot vaccination projects, One Health operationalization at the grass-root level, and reinforcing high-level political support through regional and national rabies strategy development. These are briefly described in this paper and are also further detailed in a series of publications which individually document these approaches for future utility of the countries in the region, or wherever these may be deemed fitting. The STANDZ rabies initiative leaves behind a legacy of materials and mechanisms that can potentially contribute in strategically addressing rabies in the region and in achieving the global vision of eliminating dog-mediated human rabies by 2030.