Rabies in Morocco: A Preventable Tragedy Demanding Pragmatic Action.

Abstract

Rabies continues to claim lives. Despite progress in vaccination and in the surveillance and control plans already established, this disease still causes about 59,000 human deaths each year, nearly 95% of which occur in sub-Saharan Africa — notably in Nigeria, Tanzania, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo — and in South and South-East Asia, including India, Bangladesh, Cambodia and the Philippines. This article focuses particularly on the situation in Morocco, where the persistence of the disease remains worrying, especially in rural communities where children are often attacked by stray dogs that have never been vaccinated. Every single death from rabies should not be regarded as an inevitable outcome, but rather as evidence that prevention has failed. To reverse this trend, efforts must concentrate on large-scale dog vaccination, on ensuring universal access to post-exposure care, and on implementing humane and compassionate strategies for the control of stray animal populations. Lasting progress will depend on embracing the “One Health” approach, recognizing the close interconnection between human, animal and environmental wellbeing, and thus aligning national action with the global ambition to eliminate dog-mediated rabies by 2030 — the “Zero by 30” goal.