♦ 01 september 2016 ♦
The 25th edition of the Terrestrial Animal Health Code edited by the OIE has been recently released. The OIE Terrestrial Code is a reference document for use by Veterinary Authorities, import/export services, epidemiologists and all those involved in international trade. As usual, it is composed of two volumes available on paper and an online version. The rabies chapter (Chapter 8.13.: Infection with rabies virus) is available following this link: http://www.oie.int/en/international-standard-setting/terrestrial-code/access-online/?htmfile=chapitre_rabies.htm
 

♦ 01 September 2016 ♦
The Middle Est and Eastern Europe Rabies Expert Bureau (MEEREB) is an informal group of experts in rabies dealing with several countries of Eastern Europe and Middle Est. Its objectives are to present and discuss the rabies situation in the respective countries, to exchange points of view and consider specific problems encountered in the clinical practice in order to find practical solutions. It has recently completely redesigned and renewed its website, which now includes general information on rabies, a presentation of the MEEREB group and its activities, a selection of rabies events, and many resources for veterinarians, rabies researchers, community health care workers and rabies activists.  
 

♦ 07 November 2016 ♦
[Relayed from the futurelearn.com website] In our globalised world, new approaches to preventing, treating and controlling diseases are urgently needed. New illnesses seem to spread faster than ever […] between humans and animals. Stressing this interconnectedness, One Health seeks an integrative approach to human and animal health. This course will explore this approach and examine the value of it - as well as explain how One Health strategies work in practice. This free online course, in which our Swiss colleague Jakob Zinsstag takes a part, is an attempt to answer some key questions such as the advantages of a closer cooperation between human and animal health or transdisciplinary processes to set up to solve the issue. The course is available on https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/one-health
 

♦ 24 August 2016 ♦

[relayed from https://rabiesalliance.org/] The CCC course has been designed to provide more advanced and in-depth training for Rabies Educator Certificate (REC) graduates, enabling them to become actively involved in the protection of their community against rabies, whilst also ensuring the humane treatment of animals. While the REC focuses on community education, the CCC expands this knowledge to other elements of community welfare, helping the graduate to provide even more support to enable the community to prevent rabies. It covers information needed for a community coordinator to become a rabies reference point for their community and to help the community work together with rabies control programmes to ensure vaccination programmes are successful. Information and registration on the GARC website.
 

♦ 01 September 2016 ♦
Good news for Slovenia! After years fighting against the disease, Slovenia successfully submitted last May to the OIE its self-declaration of freedom from rabies. The story of this success can be read pages 75 to 81 of the OIE Bulletin No. 2016-2. It includes detailed documentation on the history and epidemiological evolution of the disease, the eradication measures in domestic animals and the wildlife population, the rabies surveillance and monitoring, the import and trade procedures as well as the measures for disease awareness.
 

♦ 01 September 2016 ♦

[Relayed from the OIE bulletin 2016-2] Following the consensus reached at the global conference on rabies in Geneva in December 2015, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and World Health Organization (WHO) have published a global framework for the elimination of dog-mediated human rabies, in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and with the support of the Global Alliance for Rabies Control (GARC). Their aim is to harmonise global action against the disease and to provide countries and regions with flexible and practical guidelines for reducing to zero, by the year 2030, the number of human deaths caused by canine rabies in participating countries. The proposed measures for achieving this target include mass vaccination of dogs in risk areas. The OIE has developed new communication tools to raise international community awareness of this zero human deaths target. See article page 20-21.
 

♦ 28 September 2016 ♦

On 28 September 2016, on the occasion of World Rabies Day, WHO, OIE, and FAO published a joint statement to call on countries to accelerate efforts to combat rabies in three steps: Education, by raising awareness of rabies among at-risk populations, Vaccination, by implementing large-scale dog vaccination and ensuring prompt delivery of post-exposure treatment to humans in areas at risk of rabies and Elimination, by targeting a world free from dog-mediated human rabies deaths by 2030. Full statement is available on http://www.oie.int.
 

♦ 01 September 2016 ♦

Sad news for our community, as we heard that our colleague from Austria passed away beginning of September. She was an eminent scientist of our network who attended several times the annual workshop. We will remember her as a kind and discrete colleague. All our thoughts go to her family friends and Austrian colleagues.
 

♦ 01 October 2016 ♦

A new website edited by the Tunisian Ministry of Health (DSSB) entirely dedicated to rabies in Tunisia and the ways to fight the disease is now online. Apart from usual general rabies information about the disease and the action to undertake in case of a bite, this website provides interesting information on the rabies epidemiology in Tunisia, the National Programme and the vaccination campaign ongoing in this country. This website is currently mainly in French and Arabic, but will be later extended to English language.