On Saturday (26), the Ministry of Health organized an inauguration ceremony of vaccination procedures against rabies in dogs, which will be carried out bilaterally in the city of Brasilia in Acre, on the border with the city of Cobija in Bolivia. The site was chosen after a case of human rabies was registered in the Bolivian city. This event marks the start of vaccination activities in border municipalities, including Epitaciolândia, in Acre; Corumba and Ladario, in Mato Grosso do Sul; Cáceres, in Mato Grosso; and Guajara Mirim in Rondonia.
Specifically, for this bi-national measure, 70,000 doses of canine anti-rabies vaccine will be provided to Bolivia, if needed, in addition to pre-exposure prophylaxis against rabies. In all, about 100,000 dogs and cats are expected to be vaccinated in Brazilian municipalities and about 60,000 dogs and cats in Bolivian territory.
The rabies control campaign aims to achieve high vaccination coverage in domestic dogs, with the aim of forming a protective barrier against the rabies virus in the urban circulation and preserving the interruption of dog-to-human transmission. From 2015 to 2023, 32 cases of human rabies have been recorded so far in various animal species, most of them by bats. The last case of human rabies by dogs occurred in 2015, in the municipality of Kurumba.
For 2023, approximately 28 million doses are expected to be distributed to all Brazilian states, taking into account routine vaccination, focus blocking and a campaign against rabies in dogs and cats. The Ministry of Health has invested about R$35 million to obtain the canine vaccine.
Ministry of Health
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