28 September is World Rabies Day
It is celebrated annually to raise awareness about rabies prevention and to highlight progress in defeating this horrifying disease.
28 September also marks the anniversary of Louis Pasteur's death, the French chemist and microbiologist, who developed the first rabies vaccine.
Today, safe and efficacious animal and human vaccines are among the important tools that exist to eliminate human deaths from rabies while awareness is the key driver for success of communities to engage in effective rabies prevention.
World Rabies Day 2017 – Zero by 30
World Rabies Day 2017 marks the announcement of the biggest global anti-rabies initiative.
Today, the World Health Organization, the World Organisation for Animal Health, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Global Alliance for Rabies Control will reveal an ambitious plan to end human deaths from dog-transmitted rabies by 2030.
Read Press release: Towards a rabies-free world as unparalleled global initiative gets underway