title: Towards canine rabies elimination: Economic comparisons of three project sites.
abstract: An appreciation of the costs of implementing canine rabies control in different settings is important for those planning new or expanded interventions. Here we compare the costs of three canine rabies control projects in South Africa, the Philippines and Tanzania to identify factors that influence the overall costs of rabies control efforts. There was considerable variation in the cost of vaccinating each dog, but across the sites these were lower where population density was higher, and later in the projects when dog vaccination coverage was increased. Transportation costs comprised a much higher proportion of total costs in rural areas and where house-to-house vaccination campaigns were necessary. The association between the cost of providing PEP and human population density was less clear. The presence of a pre-existing national rabies management programme had a marked effect on keeping infrastructure and equipment costs for the project low. Finally, the proportion of the total costs of the project provided by the external donor was found to be low for the projects in the Philippines and South Africa, but likely covered close to the complete costs of the project in Tanzania. The detailed economic evaluation of three recent large-scale rabies control pilot projects provides the opportunity to examine economic costs across these different settings and to identify factors influencing rabies control costs that could be applied to future projects.
authors.affiliation: National Wildlife Research Center, USDA APHIS Wildlife Services, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
authors.forename: J L
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9078-8481
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Elser
authors.affiliation: National Wildlife Research Center, USDA APHIS Wildlife Services, Fort Collins, CO, USA.|Global Alliance for Rabies Control, Manhattan, KS, USA.
authors.forename: B G
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Hatch
authors.affiliation: Global Alliance for Rabies Control, Manhattan, KS, USA.
authors.forename: L H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.affiliation: Global Alliance for Rabies Control, Manhattan, KS, USA.|Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.
authors.forename: L H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Nel
authors.affiliation: National Wildlife Research Center, USDA APHIS Wildlife Services, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Shwiff
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D060740:Disease Eradication / Q000191:economics*; D004283:Dog Diseases / Q000191:economics / Q000517:prevention & control*; D004285:Dogs; D006801:Humans; D010679:Philippines / Q000453:epidemiology; D011156:Population Density; D011818:Rabies / Q000191:economics / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000662:veterinary*; D011819:Rabies Vaccines / Q000008:administration & dosage; D013019:South Africa / Q000453:epidemiology; D013636:Tanzania / Q000453:epidemiology; D014186:Transportation
chemical_list: D011819:Rabies Vaccines
keywords: dog vaccination; health economics; neglected diseases; post-exposure prophylaxis; rabies; zoonosis