“March Madness” - Rabies awareness month

Rabies.  The sound of the word sends a chill down
my spine. I have seen what this virus can do, and it’s very very frightening:  Hydrophobia, ‘foaming at the mouth’, psychotic screaming, savage agression, immunity to pain.  These are symptoms of a dark, terrifying Force - a Fury unleashed.

It astounds me to know that in this 21st century, such an ancient, Evil disease can flourish in so many parts of the world.  It truly is ’madness’.

Rabies is one of the ‘neglected’ diseases of our time.  It is 100% vaccine preventable, yet 100% fatal once symptoms are present.  No other infectious disease has such an unforgiving mortality rate.  Ebola, by comparison, carries at least a 10% chance of survival. 

Miracles do occur (see Jeanna Giese) but certainly not enough of them.  We need more miracles out there, especially for the 55,000+ people who die from rabies every year according to the World Health Organization (WHO).  The fear, the terror I’ve seen in children’s faces suffering from rabies haunts me.  I wish somebody would do something…

Rabies experts in the Philippines have estimated that for just 10 million dollars, rabies could be wiped out from those islands.  It would take a large scale vaccination and dog control program.  Other countries of similiar socio-economic status have done it - like Mexico for example.  Until now, though, ‘lack of funds’ has prevented real progress against this scourge.

Fortunately, March is ‘Rabies Awareness Month’ and the Department of Health, other governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), other partners and volunteers have teamed up for a month long rally of ‘rabies awareness’.  We here at RFW hope to help as much as possible to reduce rabies suffering.  We know have a lot of work ahead of us!

This year we plan to vaccinate more dogs in the Philippines to spare the animals and prevent the disease from reaching humans.  With our ‘click to vaccinate’ program in partnership with CARA (Compassion And Responsibility for Animals), just a few clicks can send a donation on its way to save a dog and protect the people.  Please click2vaccinate if you think you can help ‘Stop the Madness’.

Thanks for your support, RW.