Rabies In The Americas Conference
The sixteenth annual Rabies In The Americas (www.rabies-in-the-americas.org) meeting just concluded in Ottawa this October. (The program and abstracts book is available here.) The meeting was well received among attendees who participated from all over the Americas as well as around the world. Delegates from Asia, Africa, Europe and of course North and South America met for an intensive week of discussions.
The highlight of the conference was the appearance of Jeanna Giese and her family at the Gala dinner. Jeanna is the only known human survivor of rabies to have been treated with a new protocol. She thanked those gathered for all the hard work and dedication into the research which made her treatment and recovery possible. It was a happy occasion, with some scientists bursting into tears of joy to see the fruits of their hard work finally pay off! It most definitely was a very inspirational moment for all.
A Rabies Free World looks forward to the next RITA meeting, scheduled for the 3rd week in October, 2006 in Brasilia, Brazil. We have much to accomplish between now and then. We hope we will be able to support scientists who could otherwise not afford to attend the meeting. We hope to have an even larger impact at the conference and maintain our momentum towards reducing rabies suffering in the world.
Charitable works – A Run for A Rabies Free World
We had the honor of kicking off the 16th annual RITA convention by hosting A Run for A Rabies Free World. Over 30 runners participated in this fun, 3 km event along a scenic riverside route in Ottawa.
Runners received a t-shirt for participating, as well as snacks and bottled water. We raised over $700 from the runners and 4000 Euros from Crucell, a pharmaceutical company interested supporting in our mission.
Also, during the RITA convention, we ran an informational booth. We distributed over 200 brochures detailing our activities. Click to view the layout of the brochure (front, inside). Additionally, complimentary pens were distributed emblazoned with our website address. Send us an email if you would like us to send you a pen also.
We made many connections with those interested in our cause. Indeed web traffic to our site was high during this time. Preliminary plans to duplicate our rabies Cell Phone Advisory System in India were made with Dr. G Gulati.
Web Changes
A combined annual report for RFW activities in 2003 and 2004 is available here.
June 11, 2005 - New educational material made available, see RFW Advanced Education Module.