Da Nang has chosen Sơn Cẩm Hà commune as its pilot for rabies prevention in 2026–2027, Báo và Phát thanh, Truyền hình Đà Nẵng reports. The plan is still a draft.

The paper says only 65.9 per cent of dogs and cats in the commune are vaccinated against rabies. In the first ten months of 2026 the commune recorded five people bitten by rabid dogs, and a rabid dog bit a resident in 2025. Free-roaming pets, a shortage of veterinary staff and people treating bites at home with traditional remedies, scratching or sucking out venom instead of going to a clinic are named as problems.

By the end of 2027 the draft aims for at least 90 per cent of households with dogs or cats to register their animals and for at least 90 per cent of the animals due for vaccination to be covered. Village heads will work with veterinary and health workers to count animals and track vaccinations. Plans include mobile vaccination teams in each village, one or two fixed vaccination points, household pledges to leash and muzzle dogs in public, and a study of QR codes and identification collars to record vaccination history.

An inter-agency group will link the Da Nang Center for Disease Control, the Sub-Department of Livestock and Veterinary Production, the commune health station and the commune People's Committee, with a rapid-response Zalo group. Suspected cases in animals or people must be shared among them within 24 hours. Nguyễn Đại Vĩnh, director of the Da Nang CDC, stressed a "One Health" approach that protects both people and animals.

Hoàng Anh Tuấn, vice chairman of the commune People's Committee, pointed to the free-roaming habit and the staffing gap. Resident Nguyễn Thị Sương, who vaccinates her family's three dogs every year, told the paper that an unvaccinated dog with rabies is "very dangerous for everyone". The plan also includes twice-weekly radio broadcasts and lessons for primary and secondary pupils on avoiding and handling dog bites.

Sources

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