**2. Challenges of canine rabies virus control in Sierra Leone and other developing countries**

### **2.1 Policies**

Policies on dog ownership and management existed during the colonial era but were abandoned after independence. People and their dogs in the past received an annual rabies vaccine. The Government trained and empowered Police officers often called dog police, to impound, and penalized dogs' owners who failed to comply. The license and vaccination of dogs gradually disappear and dog owners no longer vaccinate their dogs against the rabies virus. Compounding the situation further is the complete lack of rabies vaccine in the country in the recent past and the prolonged civil war. Vaccinations of dogs are mostly done on an ad-hoc basis and only a few people especially children vaccinate their dogs. In most countries in Africa, people vaccinate their dogs on World Rabies day. Such spurious vaccination exercise will not eliminate rabies in the continent. The lack of effective policies on how people should own and manage dogs also tends to increase rabies outbreaks in the country. In China, for example, the national policy requires the availability of PPE (Personal protection equipment) in clinics in remote areas. Unfortunately, there was no information regarding the availability of PPE in remote communities in Sierra Leone [15]. Government across the African continent faces many challenges to effectively coordinate multifaceted programs of implementing the animal-human interface in the ecosystem in which they live [16]. The coordination of such structures is lacking in Africa and most countries have little or no public information concerning policies and strategies to eliminate rabies on the continent.

In the past decade, resource-poor countries in Africa are making some progress in rabies control and have increased their efforts due to a shift in policy by the tripartite group comprising FAO, WHO, and OIE to eliminate canine rabies by 2030 in African countries [17]. Despite this shift in policy towards canine rabies elimination, there is little public information concerning policies and strategies addressing canine rabies elimination for the whole continent.

### **2.2 Lack of veterinary personnel**

Sierra Leone has only two veterinary officers employed by the government and three are lecturers at Njala University. The mandate of the Government veterinary doctors relates to the welfare of all animals in the country however, those deployed in the capital city are saddled with the administrative matter. With a higher rate of dog bites often reported every week by WHO, saddled administrative duties prevent them to do a follow-up on people bitten by dogs.

The lack of organized outreach programs by the government veterinary doctors and routine vaccination exercises for dogs make canine rabies control and elimination in Sierra Leone extremely difficult [18, 19]. This problem is not only affecting Sierra Leone but also other countries in sub-Saharan countries such as Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe [20] where ethnoveterinary practices are commonly used to control of rabies.

#### **2.3 Lack of information on rabies**

The livestock division in the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry from antiquity lacks veterinary personnel and other support staff to provide adequate information

and services to animals and pets owners in the country. People do not know where to go when bitten by a rabid dog, nor is the vaccine available to treat both dogs and humans. Often human medical personnel refers dog bite victims to the veterinary doctor or clinics which implied that the knowledge of rabies and its treatment plan is low among medical personnel, especially in rural communities. The perception of the disease among the people is also poor as death associated with rabies is often attributed to witchcraft. Many countries in Africa have in one way or the order established a network to control rabies (40/54) however, there is still a lack of epidemiology data on rabies control and prevention [21] in both humans and other domestic animals [22]. In a review of dog control in West and Central Africa, it was reported that half of the countries in the two regions do not have reliable figures on dog population nor reported cases of rabies [23].

This obvious gap necessitates the need for research on the perception and knowledge of rural and urban dwellers on rabies and how best to handle dogs that bite people, this approach will help eradicate the disease in countries where 70% live in rural communities by 2030.

On the provision of vaccines, there is only one veterinary pharmacy located in the capital city of Freetown where animal owners and dog bite victims do patronize for rabies vaccines To increase awareness of rabies and the need for antirabies vaccination, the Animal Health Club initiated a rabies campaign between 2008 and 2013. With this effort, people became aware of rabies but lack vaccine to initiate large-scale vaccination exercises in the country hamper this laudable move to control the dreaded disease (Unpublished World rabies day report 2013).
