Every year, tens of thousands of people die from rabies after being bitten by infected dogs, despite the existence of effective vaccines. This research addresses a persistent failure in global public health: weak surveillance systems that miss cases and inefficient vaccine delivery that leaves communities unprotected. The core problem is not a lack of vaccines but a lack of data to know where and when to deploy them. The researcher will develop new tools that combine genetic analysis of the rabies virus with epidemiological tracking to detect outbreaks earlier, identify where infections are coming from, and map the routes of ongoing transmission. If successful, this work could transform how rabies control is implemented in some of the world’s most challenging settings—East Africa, the Philippines, and Peru. Better surveillance would allow health workers to target dog vaccination campaigns precisely, cutting waste and cost, and to provide human post-exposure vaccines only where they are truly needed. The approach is designed to be transferable, generating best practices that could help eliminate human deaths from dog-mediated rabies globally.
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To achieve the 2030 global target of eliminating human deaths from dog- mediated rabies necessitates overcoming enduring challenges of weak surveillance and inefficiencies in vaccine delivery. Fundamental understanding of rabies transmission dynamics gained through my long-term research can now be leveraged to target and coordinate control measures to eliminate rabies and sustain disease freedom. With my team I will develop and apply cutting-edge surveillance tools to transform the implementation of rabies control and prevention, iteratively combining methodological development with implementation science. Drawing from our extensive data I will develop new inference methods to exploit novel integrated genomic and epidemiological approaches that increase case detection, identify incursions, pinpoint their sources and track transmission to delineate foci of persistent circulation. Working collaboratively in settings representative of broader global challenges on the path to rabies elimination (East Africa, Philippines, Peru), I will use these new methods to implement enhanced surveillance to generate data for improved decision-making. Guided by this surveillance I will co- design and test synergistic interventions to increase dog vaccination effectiveness and cost-effective human post-exposure vaccine provisioning. This approach will empower scientists and practitioners whilst establishing trust and engaging communities, generating transferable lessons and best practice needed to achieve the 2030 goal.
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