Durban — The South African Military Health Service and United States Army counterparts, in partnership with the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, are conducting a free rabies vaccination campaign in KwaZulu-Natal.
Leading Seaman V.S. Khoza said on Monday, the team visited the Ntambanana Clinic and surrounding areas, northern KZN, to provide free rabies vaccinations and general veterinary care to the community's dogs and cats under the umbrella of Exercise SHARED ACCORD 2022 taking place in KwaZulu-Natal during July 2022.
“The purpose of this free rabies vaccination drive aims to curb the spread of rabies and to improve knowledge in the local community of the disease, as they experienced the loss of life of a two-year-old who suffered from rabies within the area,” Khoza said.
Khoza said pet owners brought their animals for vaccination and were issued vaccination certificates.
“Personnel from South Africa and the United States vaccinated 300 dogs and 54 cats against rabies on the day, and the campaign is set to run in the area for the whole week,” Khoza said.
Meanwhile, the eThekwini Municipality is hosting a vaccination drive in kwaNdengezi between July 12 to 19.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) announced that in total, seven human rabies deaths were laboratory-confirmed in South Africa in 2022 as of May 20, 2022.
These cases are reported from the Eastern Cape (three), Limpopo (three), and KwaZulu-Natal (one). In addition to the confirmed cases, four probable human rabies cases are recorded from the Eastern Cape.
The NICD said that the five rabies cases reported here for the period April 21-May 20, 2022, involved children from the ages of two to 14.
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