♦ 20 April 2018 ♦

[Relayed from the WHO website] Since the launch of the Global framework to eliminate human rabies transmitted by dogs by 2030 in 2015, WHO has worked with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Organisation for Animal Health, the Global Alliance for Rabies Control and other stakeholders and partners to prepare a global strategic plan. This includes a country-centric approach to support, empower and catalyse national entities to control and eliminate rabies. In this context, WHO convened its network of collaborating centres on rabies, specialized institutions, members of the WHO Expert Advisory Panel on Rabies, rabies experts and partners to review strategic and technical guidance on rabies to support implementation of country and regional programmes.  [Read more…]
 

♦ 20 April 2018 ♦

[Relayed from the WHO website] In accordance with its mandate to provide guidance to Member States on health policy matters, WHO issues a series of regularly updated position papers on vaccines and combinations of vaccines against diseases that have an international public health impact. They summarize essential background information on diseases and vaccines and conclude with the current WHO position on the use of vaccines worldwide. The papers are reviewed by external experts and WHO staff, and reviewed and endorsed by the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on immunization. The GRADE methodology is used to systematically assess the quality of the available evidence. The SAGE decision-making process is reflected in the evidence-to-recommendation tables. [Read more…]

 

♦ 25 April 2018 ♦

[Relayed from the ANSES website] “Basing itself on philosophical, social and legal interpretations of the concept of animal welfare, this Opinion proposes a definition of animal welfare that takes into account developments in scientific knowledge and summarises analyses by experts regarding the methods required for its assessment. The Opinion identifies numerous assessment grids aiming to objectively measure the conditions for animal welfare and encourages the development of specific tools depending on the species, development stage and environmental conditions of the animals. It provides an essential framework for ANSES's future research and expert appraisal work, and will serve as a basis for subsequent Opinions in this area. [Read more…]

 

♦ 12 February 2018 ♦

[Relayed from GARC website] In 2016, WHO, OIE, FAO, and many NGOs released a framework to achieve the joint goal of eliminating dog-mediated human rabies by 2030. But the goal requires overcoming substantial challenges. Dog-rabies endemic countries are at different stages in their control efforts; most countries have to overcome important hurdles […].Drawing from multiple datasets […], researchers at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) roughly estimated the resources needed to achieve the elimination of dog-mediated human rabies deaths by 2030, […]. Their aim was to describe the global rabies situation, highlighting some of the main challenges that may complicate elimination efforts in a consistent framework, the Global Dog Rabies Elimination Pathway (GDREP). The GDREP focuses of four key factors that determine [read more…]
 

♦ 31 January 2018 ♦

[Relayed from WHO website] “The new WHO recommendations for rabies immunization supersede the 2010 WHO position on pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for rabies. These updated recommendations are based on new evidence and directed by public health needs that are cost-, dose- and time-sparing, while assuring safety and clinical effectiveness. In addition, new guidance on prudent use of rabies immunoglobulin (RIG) is provided. The […] sections summarize the main points of the updated WHO position as endorsed by the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on immunization (SAGE) at its meeting in October 2017. The full version of the WHO position on rabies vaccines and immunoglobulins will be published in the Weekly Epidemiological Record in April 2018. (Read more…)”. Read le document.

♦  12 March 2018 ♦

[Relayed from the Euroreference website] This journal is “now co-edited by several EU member state institutions dealing with reference laboratory activities in animal and plant health or food and drinking water safety as well as by EPPO.” The “aim is to convert Euroreference to a truly European journal, thus strengthening the network of EU laboratories working in these sectors and consolidate EU efficiency, by facilitating the dissemination of information about reference activities among stakeholders at European level.” Issue 3 of the journal can be downloaded here.

♦ 26 January 2018 ♦

[Relayed from www.efsa.europa.eu website] “This reporting manual provides guidance for reporting on zoonoses and zoonotic agents in animals, food and feed under the framework of Directive 2003/99/EC and also on the reporting of other pathogenic microbiological agents in food. The objective is to harmonise and streamline reporting by Member States (MSs) to ensure that the data collected are relevant and easy to analyse at the European Union (EU) level. This manual covers all the zoonoses and zoonotic agents included under the current data collection system run by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Detailed instructions are provided on reporting data in both table and text form. […] The instructions given are related to the description of the sampling and monitoring schemes applied, as well as analysing the results in the national reports. […]”. Rabies part can be found in chapter “5.11. Rabies in animals” page 57 of the manual.