CITY OF SAN FERNANDO The Department of Agriculture for Central Luzon, led by the Integrated Laboratories Division (ILD) in collaboration with the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) and the Department of Health (DOH), held the celebration of World Rabies Day on September 28.

The event held online was attended through the Zoom application and in-person by the Municipal and Provincial Veterinarians of Central Luzon held at SACOP in the City of San Fernando.

This year, World Rabies Day has the theme “Rabies: One Health, Zero Death” with the aim of raising awareness for everyone and promoting the elimination of rabies in the country. It is held annually to commemorate the anniversary of the death of Louis Pasteur who discovered the vaccine against rabies.

It was led by Regional Rabies Coordinator Dr. Milagros Mananggit with Regional Technical Director for ILD, Regulatory and Research Arthur Dayrit, Ph.D., Head of Animal Disease Control, Animal Health and Welfare Division of BAI Dr. Anthony Bucad, OIC-Chief of Local Health Support Division Center for Health and Development and Head of Infectious Diseases Cluster of DOH Dr. Maria Eloisa Vidar, and JICA Expert for Japan and Philippines One Health Rabies Project Dr. Nobuo Saito.

Dayrit emphasized in his opening speech some of the rabies cases recorded in the Philippines.

"70,000 deaths worldwide were caused by rabies, around 56 percent of this death is from Asia, and from the Philippines there are around 200 deaths a year," he said.

According to Bucad, he shared the key strategies to limit rabies in animals. This is the STOP-R or Socio-Cultural, Technical, Organizational, Political-Resources that aims to make the Philippines rabies-free.

In Vidar's message, he shared the recorded cases of human rabies in Central Luzon for both months of the year 2021 and 2022.

"Between the same date period of 2021 last year and the first half of 2022, we have 35 cases from January to August of 2021 and 35 from January to August of 2022," he said.

Mananggit added, vaccination is one of the strategies how to prevent damage caused by rabies.

"Rabies is 100 percent preventable through vaccination," he added.

In the last part of the activity, the Rabies Coordinators/Provincial/City Veterinarians discussed the strategies implemented by the LGUs to achieve zero rabies cases in their provinces.