Indian Immunologicals Limited (IIL), the market leader in veterinary biologicals and one of the largest animal & human health players in India, has organised free vaccination camps in 100 centres across the country through veterinary dispensaries. IIL, which is the leader in providing tools to control the deadly “Rabies” disease in the country every year organizes these camps on July 6th on the occasion of ‘World Zoonosis Day’. The diseases that are transmitted from animals to human beings are called Zoonotic diseases.

Nearly a total of 1 lakh doses of Raksharab – a Rabies vaccine produced by IIL, was administered free of cost in all the vaccination camps through the veterinary dispensaries. IIL is the only veterinary vaccine company consistently offering this benevolent service to the society every year. IIL also supports many veterinary dispensaries, NGOs and veterinarians across the country to conduct similar awareness camps on Rabies.

Out of all microbial pathogens, more than 60 per cent causes Zoonotic diseases, while 75 per cent of all the emerging diseases are Zoonotic in nature. The occurrence of Rabies is predominant in the category with more than 90 per cent of all the Zoonotic cases in the country. Other diseases such as Brucellosis, Leptospirosis, Swine Flu, Porcine Cysticercosis etc. are predominant diseases that affect human beings and many people suffer from these diseases in India. Due to lack of awareness, often due to improper medical care or preventive medicines andunhygienic conditions, these diseases are spreading across the country. Implementation of ‘Swacch Bharat’ programme is quite appropriate and comes at a time when unhygienic conditions in India are giving rise to several zoonotic diseases.

Speaking on this occasion of Zoonosis Day, Dr. K. Anand Kumar, managing director, IIL said, “India accounts for more than 30,000 rabies related deaths per year, which is almost 1/3rd of all the death cases in the world. This is due to large uncontrolled stray dog population in India. Out of about 40 million dog population in India, stray dogs account for nearly 80 per cent of population. Due to lack of systematic vaccination and infrastructure to control stray dogs, the Rabies menace is consistently increasing in India. Through this initiative we are trying to ensure that proper vaccination is done for the animals to a certain extent and also spread the message to hold preventive healthcare in order to minimize the incidences of Zoonotic diseases.”

IIL introduced vaccines to prevent several Zoonotic diseases and are currently marketed in the country. The latest one - Cysvax - is a vaccine for Porcine Cysticercosis (a disease in Pigs), a very dangerous Zoonotic disease that potentially causes epilepsy in humans. This vaccine is being introduced for the first time in the world. Vaccinating Pigs against Porcine Cysticercosis can help significantly reduce the incidence of epilepsy in humans. IIL is always in the forefront of animal vaccine research and delivered affordable vaccines for the consumers in India. IIL is also the leading human anti-rabies vaccine manufacturer in India and indigenously developed country’s first tissue culture rabies vaccine- Abhayrab.