Background Information on Rabies Endemia and its Consequences in Tanzania

Summary

A Project Document (PRODOC) is presented which describes a comprehensive national programme involving:

• a) all administrative levels country-wide

• b) several sectors and disciplines and

• c) international cooperation

The plan for programme execution comprises three major elements:

• a) a phase of rabies control restricted to some of the most affected districts of the country. This phase, which includes Staff Training and Operational Research, is to be implemented immediately using available resources (Ukerewe and Bunda districts and Vaccine Trials in Iringa and Arusha),

• b) international technical cooperation for the expansion of the programme over the whole country,

• c) improvement of basic services in veterinary public health for maintenance of the rabies free status and thus of the general infrastructure for animal disease surveillance and control.

The aim of this summary is to explain the circumstances of the extension of Rabies Control in Tanzania, which has led the responsible authorities of the Ministries concerned to promote such a programme, to set out its aims and the conditions for its excution, and to evaluate the first results obtained during the initial phase of the carrying out of this programme in Ukerewe and Bunda districts and Nyanja division.

It is concluded that the effort agreed to by the United Republic of Tanzania in the sphere of the control of zoonoses in general, and rabies in particular, is an important one, and one which would be in vain were it not to be supported by active international cooperation and extended to the neighbouring countries in the region.

Canine rabies has been endemic in the Tanzanian Mainland for decades. Sporadic cases in animals have been reported from different parts of the country. A reservoir of the disease has been observed since 1956 in the Mbeya region bordering Zambia and Malawi.

Figure 1 illustrates the progressive spread of the disease in the Tanzanian Mainland, reaching the Dodoma and Morogoro regions in the sixties. It further spread northwards in the mid-seventies, then rapidly towards Lake Victoria regions. The Singida, Tabora and Shinyanga regions became infected in 1976/1977. The epidemic invaded Mwanza region in 1978, and Mara region in 1978/1979. An almost explosive development of the disease was reported in 1980/1981 in the district island of Ukerewe of Mwanza region and Tarime district in Mara region.

An explanation for this spread of the disease could be sought in the increasing density and mobility of rural populations. The rapid progress made in rural development and settlement projects means that an energetic programme to provide the infrastructure and services for animal health and production is needed. Canine rabies is perhaps the most alarming signal dictating the next steps to be taken in the Veterinary sector of rural development.

During 1978, the year of the most rapid spread of the epidemic, 2,354 cases of human exposure to rabid or suspectedly rabid animals were reported by the veterinary services alone and the medical services reported 27 deaths in Mara region and one death in Iringa region. In 1980, Ukerewe district alone reported 10 deaths. It is assumed that these recorded cases in man and of human exposure represent only a small proportion of exposures and deaths which actually occurred.