Entebbe, Uganda: The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) on Saturday conducted a major “One Health Camp” at Mayor’s Gardens in Entebbe, providing free rabies vaccination, spaying and neutering services for hundreds of dogs and cats as part of efforts to combat zoonotic diseases and promote responsible pet ownership.
The health camp, themed “Share Our Care,” was organized in partnership with Twiga Veterinary Clinic and Entebbe Municipal Council.
The initiative attracted hundreds of pet owners from Entebbe and surrounding areas seeking free veterinary services for their animals.
By the close of the exercise at 6pm, organizers revealed that a total of 547 animals had been attended to, including 530 dogs and 17 cats. Veterinary teams also carried out 19 spaying procedures and 22 castrations.
According to Victor Musiime, the campaign forms part of broader efforts to eliminate dog-mediated rabies by 2030 while strengthening public awareness about zoonotic diseases.
“We are doing humane population control through surgeries, for example, spays and neuters, to make sure that we reduce the number of stray dogs and cats roaming the streets, which also may interact with wild animals and could even pick up rabies and bring the disease to us,” Dr Musiime said.
“We are also carrying out sensitisation on rabies and other zoonotic diseases that can pass from animals to human beings and from humans to animals,” he added.
Campaign to Expand Near Protected Areas
Dr Musiime revealed that UWA plans to extend similar One Health campaigns to communities surrounding protected wildlife areas across Uganda. “We shall go an extra mile and even have human medical camps where we shall work together with our counterparts from the human medical side,” he said.
“We shall also have tree planting exercises, community clean-up activities and several other programmes that promote the whole concept of One Health, which looks at human health, animal health and environmental health.”
Residents welcomed the initiative and called for more regular veterinary outreach programmes.
Moses Keith, a resident of Katabi, praised UWA for providing free vaccination services, saying many pet owners struggle to afford veterinary care. He appealed for more health camps so that larger sections of the community can benefit.
Health experts note that approximately 99 percent of human rabies cases originate from dog bites, making vaccination of domestic animals one of the most effective ways to prevent the deadly disease.
Officials also emphasized that the cost of treating human rabies cases is significantly higher than the cost of vaccinating animals.
This story was first published by Gateway News and has been adapted with full credit.
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