We probably sound like a broken record sometimes, but the escalating threat of rabies in Kabul worries our team every single day. It seems to be casting such a devastating threat — not just to animals in the city and rural areas, but directly into the centre of families living alongside horses, farm animals and those dogs and cats roaming the streets.
Recently, our vet team has witnessed an alarming and heart-breaking trend there: several of the communities we work with have suffered the painful loss of their prized cows after the animals were bitten by rabid free-roaming dogs and went down with the virus themselves.
For vulnerable families, the impact goes far beyond the physical loss. Livestock are absolute essentials for survival. A dairy cow provides critical daily nutrition and essential income through milk sales.
But the tragedy doesn't stop there - when word spreads that a community cow has succumbed to rabies, fear takes over. Suddenly, no one will touch the milk or go near the animals, triggering a devastating ripple effect of financial ruin. And, on top of all this, to watch a beloved family animal suffer the agonising, 100% fatal symptoms of rabies is emotionally devastating.
Because rabies is fatal once clinical symptoms appear in both animals and humans, prevention is the only thing in our toolkit.
As well as running vaccination campaigns as much as we possibly can, our teams are also conducting comprehensive dog surveys across key districts of Kabul right now. These surveys give us an accurate, data-driven understanding of dog population dynamics and real-time rabies threat mapping.
We cannot rely on guesswork to beat this disease. But, with your continued support, our teams remain 100% committed to driving forward humane, sustainable solutions for Kabul.
Support our mission today to protect livelihoods, shield vulnerable Afghan families, and fight this awful virus that takes so much from people and their animals.
https://www.nowzad.com/support-us
Thank-you, as always.