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Page 45 Cediel-Becerra et al. One Health Implement Res 2023;3:42-54 https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/ohir.2023.01

An example of such efforts are those conducted in the city of Cali. Throughout 1965, local governments
received large numbers of complaints regarding bites from stray, unknown and suspected-rabid dogs, as
well as information requests from neighbors of rabies cases. Rates of rabies-associated deaths were high -
over 40 per annum - and the majority of those infected were children. Consequently, epidemiological
investigation was established. Beginning in neighborhoods, search teams of local volunteers (school
teachers, communal action boards, health center officials, priests, and municipal authorities) went house to
house to look for individuals who had been bitten. These activities generated the development of a strategy
which was expanded to all other departments nation-wide with the aim of reducing canine-borne rabies and
human deaths. Efforts were intensified during 1969 when preparatory meetings for the planning of the 1971
Pan American Games, due to be hosted in Cali, were initiated. In identifying safety strategies for the
Olympic village, a member of the International Olympic Committee raised concerns regarding the risk of
rabies to athletes and visitors, as a threshold of zero cases was required. Consequently, the “Cali Free of
Canine Rabies” campaign was established with the slogan: “a commitment from Cali, vaccinating 100,000
dogs against rabies” .
[1]
The successful dog rabies campaigns were based on key principles, particularly the engagement of multiple
stakeholders, strongly interrelated with the One Health approach [Figure 1]. These experiences
demonstrating community engagement and commitment, both by the public and private sector, are crucial
[9]
strategic elements in ensuring the effectiveness of interventions .
1970s and 1980s
By 1979, the laboratory where rabies vaccines were produced was renamed as the National Institute of
Health. There, among other vaccination types, 841,800 doses of canine rabies vaccine and 320,348 doses of
human rabies vaccine were produced annually. The national population was not the only beneficiary -
twenty countries in Central America, South America, the Caribbean, and Africa imported biological
products against rabies produced in Colombia . Similarly, the Vecol laboratory of the Colombian
[12]
Veterinary Products Company, under the advisory of the Pasteur Institute, produced rabies vaccines for
[11]
veterinary use . Consequently, in 1988, PAHO-WHO, the Rockefeller Foundation and the U.S. Centre for
Disease Control selected Vecol to lead the establishment of a pilot production plant. Here, they
manufactured rabies vaccines for both human and animal use using Vero cells (taken from the kidney of
African green monkeys), replacing the aforementioned suckling mouse brain tissue which resulted in
adverse reactions . The first three batches produced were tested at the Agriculture and Livestock
[13]
Colombian Institute (ICA) and the Pasteur Institute with promising results .
[10]
The national programme for the control of rabies in bats began in the early 1980's when the first reports of
human cases resulting from bat transmission were recorded in the Darien Gap. With support from PAHO/
WHO, leading experts in vampire bat rabies were deployed from Mexico to tackle the spread of the virus
and train Colombian personnel. Their equipment included: nets for capture of the bats; moon calendars;
Vampirimid (Mexican brand of Warfarin, a product used to cull bat populations); lamps; ropes; and bovine
rabies vaccines for reduction of onwards human transmission via consumption. The success of this
programme resulted in its replication in other regions across Colombia where vampire bat rabies
predominated including La Guajira, Cesar, Llanos Orientales (Eastern Plains), Urabá antioqueño, Córdoba,
[11]
Sucre, among others .
Between 1994 and 2000
Decentralization of public health services in Colombia was supported by Law 10 of 1990 and Law 100 of
1993, serving to fragment the national control of rabies and other infectious diseases in several departments
[2]
of the country . It resulted in activities such as animal vaccination, surveillance and animal population