Evaluating the outcomes of the mass dog rabies vaccination campaign is necessary to measure its effectiveness and identify areas for improvement. The WHO promote a vaccination coverage of at least 70% to achieve to maintain herd immunity given population turnover, and so campaign leads need to evaluate if this has been met after the vaccination drive.
The assessment will focus on two primary components: conducting a post-vaccination survey (PVS) to estimate vaccination coverage among dog population and tracking rabies surveillance data for long-term impact of the MDV campaign. In this section we discuss PVS, whilst surveillance is covered in the later surveillance module.
Conducting post-vaccination surveys (PVS) as an immediate impact assessment is important. The PVS estimates the vaccination coverage among the dog population, thereby providing insights into the effectiveness of the mass dog vaccination campaign. PVSs must be planned during the campaign preparation stage to ensure that resources can be dedicated to it.