Problem: Human health is threatened by animal-borne diseases (zoonoses)

Rabies kills over 55,000 people each year. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), ‘more than 99 per cent of all human rabies cases are transmitted by the bites of infected dogs’.

Reliable post-exposure rabies treatment represents a major financial burden for the people most at risk – those living in poor rural areas. In Asia, the average cost of post-exposure treatment is US$492.

Like many developing communities, the municipality of Colombo City, Sri Lanka, attempted to control both the roaming dog population and cases of rabies by catching and killing hundreds of dogs every year.

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It is no easy task to take the benefits of the Blue Paw Trust clinic project beyond the Colombo municipal area. The reason is it is not viable for Blue Paw Trust to solely fund such a project and it is not always possible to find a person who would provide the necessary location to carry out the project activities. However, if there is a need it is not an impossible task. On 5th February 2009, Mrs. K. G. Manika, a resident of Temple Road (Weli Para) Thalawathugoda overcame this challenge. She was able to bring the BluePaw Trust clinic to Thalawathugoda.