Despite declaration as a national priority disease, dog rabies remains endemic in Liberia, with surveillance systems and disease control activities still developing. The objective of these initial efforts was to establish animal rabies diagnostics, foster collaboration between all rabies control stakeholders, and develop a short-term action plan with estimated costs for rabies control and elimination in Liberia. Four rabies diagnostic tests, the direct fluorescent antibody (DFA) test, the direct immunohistochemical test (dRIT), the reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay and the rapid immunochromatographic diagnostic test (RIDT), were implemented at the Central Veterinary Laboratory (CVL) in Monrovia between July 2017 and February 2018. Seven samples (n=7) out of eight suspected animals were confirmed positive for rabies lyssavirus, and molecular analyses revealed that all isolates belonged to the Africa 2 lineage, subgroup H. During a comprehensive in-country One Health rabies stakeholder meeting in 2018, a practical workplan, a short-term action plan and an accurately costed mass dog vaccination strategy were developed. Liberia is currently at stage 1.5/5 of the Stepwise Approach towards Rabies Elimination (SARE) tool, which corresponds with countries that are scaling up local-level interventions (e.g. dog vaccination campaigns) to the national level. Overall an estimated 5.3 – 8 million USD invested over 13 years is needed to eliminate rabies in Liberia by 2030. Liberia still has a long road to become free from dog-rabies. However, the dialogue between all relevant stakeholders took place, and disease surveillance considerably improved through implementing rabies diagnosis at the CVL. The joint efforts of diverse national and international stakeholders laid important foundations to achieve the goal of zero dog-mediated human rabies deaths by 2030.

尽管被宣布为国家重点疾病，但狂犬病仍在利比里亚流行，监测系统和疾病控制活动仍在发展。这些初步工作的目的是建立动物狂犬病诊断程序，促进所有狂犬病控制利益相关者之间的合作，并制定一项短期行动计划，估算利比里亚的狂犬病控制和消除成本。中央兽医局实施了四项狂犬病诊断测试，即直接荧光抗体（DFA）测试，直接免疫组织化学测试（dRIT），逆转录酶聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）分析和快速免疫色谱诊断测试（RIDT）在2017年7月至2018年2月之间，蒙罗维亚实验室（CVL）。八只可疑动物中有七个样本（n = 7）被确认为阳性狂犬病狂犬病毒以及分子分析显示，所有分离株均属于非洲2血统H组。在2018年一次全国范围内的一次健康狂犬病利益相关者会议上，一项切实可行的工作计划，一项短期行动计划以及一种成本合理的大规模狗疫苗接种策略被开发。利比里亚目前处于“消除狂犬病循序渐进方法”（SARE）工具的1.5 / 5阶段，该工具对应于将地方干预措施（例如狗疫苗接种运动）扩大到国家一级的国家。总体而言，到2030年消除利比里亚狂犬病估计需要5.3 – 800万美元，以在2030年之前消除狂犬病。但是，所有相关利益相关者之间都进行了对话，通过在CVL实施狂犬病诊断，大大改善了疾病监测。各国和国际利益攸关方的共同努力为实现到2030年实现以狗为媒介的人类狂犬病零死亡的目标奠定了重要基础。