A digital application called BlockRabies Application, has been developed by researchers to effectively fight against human rabies deaths. The application’s validation test took place on Tuesday, September 05, 2023, at the headquarters of the Projet d’Amélioration de la Santé Animale et de l’Hygiène Publique Vétérinaire (PASA-HPV), in Abidjan-Cocody. It was a long-awaited event for the entire team of experts involved.
According to Professor Jakob Zinsstag, head of the project that lead the development of the BlockRabies App, this is “the world’s first digital application” that registers “the patient as well as the rabid dog that bit him/her”. It aims to “give a new boost to the rabies vaccine strategy”, as Prof. Jakob Zinsstag says:
« Until now, we’ve lost 40% of patients because they forgot to come back for vaccination. Currently, it takes over a month for the result of a dog bite to be communicated to the rabies center. With this application, communication is instantaneous, and the attending physician knows everything about the biting animal ».
To create “a complete electronic patient record” for all dog bite victims is one of the major aims of this innovation, according to Prof. Zinsstag, particularly in an African context where over 25,000 people die of rabies every year.
Scaling up
After the pilot phase in Côte d’Ivoire (Bouaké and San-Pedro) and Mali, there are plans to extend the BlockRabies App to Tanzania, Chad, Ethiopia and other countries that need it.
“Today, we are well on the way to implementing this innovative application. All the institutional support is in place and available to the project so that we can have tools to strengthen the health system”, said Dr Kallo Vessaly, Director of the Côte d’Ivoire Veterinary Services.
The BlockRabies App will be presented in New York on Thursday September 14, 2023 at the United Nations scientific meeting. It should be emphasized that the BlockRabies App was designed taking into account the ethical and socio-cultural elements of Mali and Côte d’Ivoire.
The BlockRabies App is an outcome of the BlockRabies project funded by EDCTP. The project aims to use innovative blockchain technology to increase access to preventive rabies treatment and to improve cross-sectoral coordination between institutions involved in the fight against rabies. It was initiated by the research team lead by Professor Jakob Zinsstag at Swiss TPH with contributions from researchers of the Afrique One consortium based at Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques lead by Professor Bassirou Bonfoh and collaborators Dr. Kathrin Heitz-Tokpa, Vessaly Kallo and Rose Delima N’Guessan.
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