Announcing the White Paper 'Moving towards a rabies-free Southeast Asia'

The White Paper "Moving towards a rabies-free Southeast Asia" is a document developed in cooperation with Eco-Business by Boehringer Ingelheim - the world's leading biopharmaceutical corporation.

With the goal of preventing and repelling rabies in Southeast Asia, specifically focusing on Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand, the White Paper "Moving towards a rabies-free Southeast Asia" emphasizes specific challenges for each country, and highlights solutions offered by many experts, based on the One Health approach to balance and optimize human and animal health.

The report also shares recommendations to realize the global strategic goal "Zero by 30" (By 2030, the world will have no more deaths from rabies) in order to end the situation of people dying from rabies by 2030.

With more than 30 years of experience preventing and managing rabies, Boehringer Ingelheim initiated the rabies eradication program, reinforcing its mission to improve the health of animals and people. The Group is also committed to continuing to support sustainable collaborative efforts to achieve meaningful progress in eliminating rabies in Southeast Asia.

In Vietnam, Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health Vietnam LLC has cooperated with Long An Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and Duc Hue District People's Committee (Long An), to implement the program "Rabies vaccination for the community" for 3 consecutive years. From 2021 until now, the program has vaccinated a total of 19,400 local dogs and cats for free against rabies. In 2023 alone, about 7,000 dogs and cats in Duc Hue district will be vaccinated.

Dr. Torsten Hardge, the Director of Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health Vietnam LLC, shared: “Our vaccination campaigns in Duc Hue district have proven that if animals are healthy, people are also healthier. As a world leader in the field of veterinary medicine, we are proud to contribute our research achievements to this meaningful campaign to protect people and animals against rabies. Propaganda and education about rabies and how to prevent rabies is also an important element in our campaign."

Information from the 2023 Congress of the Federation of Asian Veterinary Association (FAVA) in Kuching, Malaysia, shows that, despite many efforts, Southeast Asia is still a rabies hotspot with millions of people at risk of contracting the disease. The spread of rabies in this area is also increasing and new cases appear in places where cases have never been recorded. Some factors leading to an increase in rabies cases in the area include: Large number of free-roaming and unvaccinated dogs; Vaccination rates in pets and free-range livestock are still low; limited resources and access to vaccines for livestock; Transboundary spread of rabies.