Objectives: Hoping to improve health-related effectiveness, a two-phase vaccination against rabies was designed and executed in northern Tanzania in 2018, which included geo-epidemiological and economic perspectives.
Methods: Considering the local bio-geography and attempting to rapidly establish a protective ring around a city at risk, the first phase intervened on sites surrounding that city, where the population density was lower than in the city at risk. The second phase vaccinated a rural area.
Results: No rabies-related case has been reported in the vaccinated areas for over a year post-immunisation; hence, the campaign is viewed as highly cost-effective. Other metrics included: rapid implementation (concluded in half the time spent on other campaigns) and the estimated cost per protected life, which was 3.28 times lower than in similar vaccinations.
Conclusions: The adopted design emphasised local bio-geographical dynamics: it prevented the occurrence of an epidemic in a city with a higher demographic density than its surrounding area and it also achieved greater effectiveness than average interventions. These interdisciplinary, policy-oriented experiences have broad and immediate applications in settings of limited and/or time-sensitive (expertise, personnel, and time available to intervene) resources and conditions.
Keywords: Dog; Geo-epidemiology; Health economics; Human health; One health; Rabies; Vaccination.
Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.