World Rabies Day 2024

The World Rabies Day theme for 2024 is ‘Breaking Rabies Boundaries’, which was chosen to highlight the need for progress and moving beyond the status quo. Rabies control programmes offer a great example to operationalize One Health – building the structures and trust that are crucial to establish systems for other zoonotic diseases, including those that are pandemic-prone. This theme calls for innovative strategies and collaboration across various sectors and regions, highlighting the importance of integrating human, animal, and environmental health efforts. By breaking boundaries, we can overcome geographic, socio-economic, and educational barriers, ensuring widespread vaccination, awareness, and access to medical care. This unified approach is crucial in the fight against rabies, fostering a world where the disease is no longer a threat to both humans and animals. 

This theme highlights the need for cross-sectoral and cross-border collaborations, bringing together governments, health organizations, veterinary services, and communities. In addition, there is a double meaning in the theme in that rabies itself does not recognize borders or boundaries and so it is a transboundary disease. 

The theme further emphasizes the importance of equality and strengthening overall health systems by ensuring that One Health is not for a select few but rather something that should be available to everyone.

By collaborating and joining forces across sectors, engaging communities, and committing to sustain dog vaccination, together as 1 we can work towards 1 goal to eliminate 1 disease to make One Health available to all – using rabies as the example.

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