A partnership has been established in the Greater Accra Region to help address dog bites and rabies among schoolchildren.
The initiative, according to Graphic Online, involves the Ghana Education Service School Health Education Programme (GES/SHEP), the Veterinary Services Department, and Communication Initiatives for Change (CIC-Ghana), a non-governmental organization. The pharmaceutical company, Boehringer Ingelheim (BI), is sponsoring the initiative.
Emmanuel Fiagbey, Executive Director of CIC-Ghana, revealed in a statement that school-age children in Ghana suffer the most from dog bites and resulting rabies disease. He noted that children love dogs and cats and often interact closely with them.
As such, it is critical to find a fast and effective solution to save the lives of school-going children. To address this issue, a unique partnership was formed and will soon be extended across the country.
A campaign called "Basic Schools Rabies Prevention Education in the Greater Accra Region" has begun to help raise awareness and knowledge among schoolchildren, teachers, parents, and other stakeholders in basic schools in the region.
The campaign focuses on providing basic information on the causes of rabies, signs and symptoms, mode of transmission, prevention and proper treatment, and care for dog bites and other exposures.
Stephen Abamfo, Greater Accra Regional Director of the GES, commented on the campaign, stating that educational programs such as this are immensely important in creating a safe human-animal health environment and protecting the health of our children.
The basic schools' rabies education campaign, led by CIC-Ghana, has so far trained a total of 291 District and School Health Education Coordinators, School Improvement Support Officers, and head teachers in 10 municipalities and districts in the Greater Accra Region in rabies prevention and effective treatment of dog bites.
To enable teachers to integrate appropriate rabies prevention messages in their daily interactions with schoolchildren, communication and educational materials such as posters, rabies prevention and dog bites treatment guides, and flip charts have been provided.
Dr Emmanuel Pecku of the Veterinary Services Department stated in 2022 that about 40% of all rabies cases recorded in Ghana involved children below the age of 14 years.
A previous six-year investigation by Dr William Tasiame and his team involving seven regional hospitals revealed that children aged zero to 15 years formed the highest number of victims of dog bites in those regions.
As part of a training trainers' program, 100 action plans for 100 schools were developed by the School Health Teams to guide rabies prevention in all the schools.
The implementation of these action plans will enable approximately 45,000 basic schoolchildren in the Greater Accra Region to receive messages on rabies prevention and appropriate ways of treating dog bites.
By the end of the year, the GES/SHEP, VSD-Ghana, CIC-Ghana, and BI partnership plan to extend the basic school's rabies prevention education campaign to other regions of Ghana, especially the Volta and Bono regions.
Communication Initiatives for Change (CIC) Ghana is a Ghanaian non-governmental organization with expertise in social and behavioural change, health, and development communication.
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The basic schools' rabies education campaign, led by CIC-Ghana, has so far trained a total of 291