Online Reporter
Nqobile Bhebhe, Zimpapers Writer
Zimbabwe has launched a bold national strategy to eliminate all dog-mediated human rabies cases by 2030, with a target to vaccinate every dog in the country as part of a multisectoral One Health approach.
This comes as the country kicked off a high-level three-day strategic planning workshop in Harare on Monday to map out the final framework for a rabies-free Zimbabwe.
Rabies, a preventable but deadly disease that claims nearly 59,000 lives globally each year, remains a serious public health threat in Zimbabwe especially in rural areas where access to life-saving post-exposure treatment is limited.
Speaking at the opening session, Director for the Department of Veterinary Field Services in the Directorate of Veterinary Services, Dr Jairas Machakwa, underscored the urgency of stamping out the disease, describing it as a crisis of health equity.
“Rabies is not a disease confined to one sector of our community, it’s everybody’s responsibility,” said Dr. Machakwa. “So the strategy that we are crafting here is going to ensure that everybody is involved, leaving no one and no place behind.”
Zimbabwe’s new Strategic Plan has been developed in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), and the Global Alliance for Rabies Control (GARC).
It rests on the One Health approach, which brings together human, animal, and environmental health sectors.
Central to the strategy is the scaling up of mass dog vaccination campaigns — especially in densely populated areas where children and other vulnerable groups are at highest risk.
“We also want to ensure that there is a scaling up of mass dog vaccination, particularly in areas that are highly populated,” Dr Machakwa said.
“As you know, these dogs bite school children, they bite the women, they bite the most vulnerable of our populations and we want every dog in those communities to be vaccinated. A dog that is vaccinated gives us an assurance that when it bites a person, he is satisfactorily safe from rabies. Why? Because rabies is 100 percent vaccine preventable.”
Dr Machakwa emphasised that the country’s goal is not just to reduce rabies cases, but to completely eliminate all dog-mediated human rabies by the end of the decade.
“We want all dogs to be vaccinated. We want by 2030 to have eliminated all drug-mediated human rabies cases. We don’t want to hear of rabies by 2030,” he said.
Surveillance and inter-sectoral collaboration will also be central pillars of the plan, with local authorities, veterinary services, public health departments, and communities expected to play key roles in detection, response, and prevention.
“We also want to ensure that surveillance of rabies is thoroughly done by all sectors,” said Dr Machakwa. “These are the issues that we think this workshop is going to cement through the strategy that is coming up.”
Last week, Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr Douglas Mombeshora told Parliament that the country recorded over 95 000 dog bites between 2022 and mid-2025, with nearly all provinces affected by the rising trend.
Rabies is a deadly viral disease affecting mammals such as dogs, cats, cattle, donkeys and humans. It causes inflammation of the brain and is transmitted through the bite of an infected animal — especially dogs and jackals — via saliva.
Around 99 percent of all human rabies cases are caused by dogs. People bitten by a suspected rabid dog must receive prompt treatment and vaccination.
