Costs and effectiveness of alternative dog vaccination strategies to improve dog population coverage in rural and urban settings during a rabies outbreak

Abstract

Dog-rabies elimination programs have typically relied upon parenteral vaccination at central-point locations; however, dog-ownership practices, accessibility to hard-to-reach sub-populations, resource limitations, and logistics may impact a country's ability to reach the 70% coverage goal recommended by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and World Health Organization (WHO). Here we report the cost-effectiveness of different dog-vaccination strategies during a dog-rabies outbreak in urban and peri-urban sections of Croix-des-Bouquets commune of the West Department, Haiti, in 2016. Three strategies, mobile static point (MSP), mobile static point with capture-vaccinate-release (MSP + CVR), and door-to-door vaccination with oral vaccination (DDV + ORV), were applied at five randomly assigned sites and assessed for free-roaming dog vaccination coverage and total population coverage. A total of 7065 dogs were vaccinated against rabies during the vaccination campaign. Overall, free-roaming dog vaccination coverage was estimated at 52% (47%-56%) for MSP, 53% (47%-60%) for DDV + ORV, and 65% (61%-69%) for MSP + CVR (differences with MSP and DDV + ORV significant at p < 0.01). Total dog vaccination coverage was 33% (95% CI: 26%-43%) for MSP, 49% (95% CI: 40%-61%) for MSP + CVR and 78% (77%-80%) for DDV + ORV (differences significant at p < 0.001). Overall, the least expensive campaign was MSP, with an estimated cost of about $2039 per day ($4078 total), and the most expensive was DDV + ORV with a cost of $3246 per day ($6492 total). Despite the relative high cost of an ORV bait, combining DDV and ORV was the most cost-effective strategy in our study ($1.97 per vaccinated dog), largely due to increased efficiency of the vaccinators to target less accessible dogs. Costs per vaccinated dog were $2.20 for MSP and $2.28 for MSP + CVR. We hope the results from this study will support the design and implementation of effective dog vaccination campaigns to achieve the goal of eliminating dog-mediated human rabies deaths by 2030.

Keywords: Global health; Health economics; Infectious disease; One health; Rabies; Vaccination; Zoonotic diseases.