By Zakari Haruna Isah
KADUNA — Access to vaccines and post-exposure treatment has emerged as a major challenge in Nigeria’s efforts to eliminate human deaths from rabies by 2030, with veterinary professionals calling for increased availability and affordability of the life-saving interventions.
The Minister of Livestock Development, Idi Mukhtar Maiha, said the Federal Government is revamping the capacity of the National Veterinary Research Institute, NVRI, including the completion of an abandoned facility and the procurement of equipment for vaccine production.
He said the facility is being prepared for a production capacity of up to 850 million doses, stressing that the government must overcome vaccine availability as one of the major challenges in the fight against rabies.
Maiha made the remarks during the 2026 World Rabies Day commemoration in Kaduna, where he also called for stronger surveillance, improved reporting and expanded dog vaccination as part of a coordinated national response to the disease.
He said reported rabies outbreaks increased by 16.3 per cent between January and August 2026, compared with the corresponding period of 2025, describing the trend as a warning that prevention and control measures must be intensified.
The Minister also called for stronger reporting by public and private veterinary services, laboratories, hospitals and other points of care, saying reliable data was essential for identifying high-risk areas, planning vaccination programmes and allocating resources effectively.
The Kaduna State Commissioner for Agriculture, Murtala Dabo, who was also present at the occasion, reiterated the state government’s commitment to preventing and ultimately eradicating rabies in the state.
Dabo said the commitment was being demonstrated through concrete interventions, including the launch of a free rabies vaccination campaign across the state about two weeks before the World Rabies Day commemoration.
He said the initiative was aimed at improving access to vaccination, protecting communities and strengthening efforts to control the spread of the disease, while urging residents and dog owners to support government measures by ensuring that their dogs are vaccinated.
The Commissioner also stressed the importance of community participation in rabies prevention, calling for greater public awareness and responsible ownership of domestic animals as part of efforts to protect both human and animal health.
Meanwhile, the President of the Nigerian Veterinary Medical Association, Dr Moses Arokoyo, identified limited access to vaccines and inadequate public awareness as major obstacles to the fight against rabies.
Arokoyo said people who work closely with dogs, including veterinary students and other high-risk groups, need access to preventive vaccination, while people bitten by suspected rabid dogs require immediate access to post-exposure treatment.
He called on the government and development partners to support efforts to make vaccines and post-exposure prophylaxis more readily available and affordable.
The NVMA President said public awareness was equally important, noting that some members of the public still dismiss rabies as a myth until they witness severe symptoms in victims.
He said the association had intensified awareness campaigns across the country, taking the message to communities, schools, religious institutions and abattoirs.
Arokoyo also supported the Minister’s call for a strategic approach to managing stray dogs, saying Nigeria would face difficulties in eliminating rabies while unvaccinated stray dogs continued to circulate within communities.
He said the issue would be discussed at the association’s forthcoming national congress in Akwa Ibom, where veterinarians, researchers, government officials and other stakeholders are expected to deliberate on strategies for managing stray dogs and strengthening Nigeria’s rabies response.
Stakeholders say sustained dog vaccination, affordable access to post-exposure treatment, reliable surveillance and continuous public awareness will be critical to Nigeria’s efforts to achieve the global target of zero human deaths from dog-mediated rabies by 2030.
For Nigeria, the challenge is not only to produce vaccines, but also to ensure that they are consistently available and accessible to the people and animals that need them.