[Archived] City of Alexandria Hosts Run Against Rabies

City Press Release


	For Immediate Release	For More Information, Contact
	August 27, 2007 PIO# 210-07/ajb	Andrea Blackford, Communications Officer, at 703.519.3489

City of Alexandria Hosts Run Against Rabies
Event Commemorates World Rabies Day

The Alexandria Health Department and the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria (AWLA) will be hosting a free “Fun Run Event” in the City of Alexandria to promote the city’s campaign on rabies prevention and control. The event is scheduled to take place on World Rabies Day, September 8, 2007, at 4101 Eisenhower Ave. The World Rabies Day initiative is a global rabies awareness campaign being spearheaded by the Alliance for Rabies Control, a United Kingdom-based charity, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Events planned during this day around the globe will focus on increasing awareness about rabies and support strategies that focus on rabies control and prevention.

Rabies is caused by a virus that attacks the nervous system, and is almost always fatal once symptoms develop. The rabies virus is found primarily in the saliva and brain tissue of rabid animals. The virus is most often transmitted through a bite, but can also be transmitted when a rabid animal's saliva or brain tissue comes in contact with a person's eyes or mouth. “World Rabies Day offers all of us a unique opportunity to increase global awareness of the most deadly disease known to humans,” says Dr. Deborah Briggs, Executive Director for the Alliance of Rabies Control. “With the initial major effort being the declaration of World Rabies Day on September 8, 2007, events are planned throughout the world to increase awareness about rabies, and to raise support and funding towards its prevention and control.”

The City of Alexandria invites you to run or walk to help make rabies history. The Fun Run Event registration (free) is scheduled to begin at 8 am and the run will begin at 9 am. Parking will available at Cameron Run Regional Park, located at 4100 Eisenhower Ave., next door to the fun run site. The event will include exhibits on dog bite prevention, on what to do after being bitten by an animal, and other general rabies information. The AWLA will also hold a vaccination and microchipping clinic, beginning at 11 am. Additional information is available online at www.alexhealth.org/fun_run.html and at www.worldrabiesday.org.

For more information, contact Holly Feltner, Environmental Health Biologist at the Alexandria Health Department Division of Environmental Health, at 703.838.4400, ext. 326, or by email at holly.feltner@vdh.virginia.gov.

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