World Zoonoses Day: Meet Amy Lewis, veterinary alumna and International Projects Manager for Mission Rabies
For World Zoonoses Day 2024, we catch-up with alumna Amy Lewis (BVSc 2017). Amy is now International Projects Manager for the charity Mission Rabies. Her interview highlights the critical role many of our veterinary graduates play in advancing One Health, a multidisciplinary approach which recognises the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health.
World Zoonoses Day, observed annually on 6th July reminds us of the global impact of zoonotic diseases (illnesses transmitted between animals and humans). Veterinary professionals like Amy contribute significantly to global health by implementing strategies to control and prevent these diseases.
Amy kindly shares with us more about her role and the work of Mission Rabies, as well as her career journey so far.
Do you have any memories from your time as a vet student at Liverpool to share? What inspired you to volunteer for Mission Rabies as a veterinary student?
I was speaking to a friend the other day and it hit me that I started Vet school almost 12 years ago… that made me feel old! I’ve got so many memories from my time in Liverpool and in Neston for fourth and fifth year.
Ironically, Public Health and Epidemiology were two of my least favourite areas to study, so who knew that I’d end up in this field! I had also spent the entirety of vet school thinking that I was going to go into farm animal, having absolutely loved both the EMS and academia related to it. But my desire for travel and to make a wider difference to human and animal lives overruled this dream, and I’ve not looked back since.
I have quite an impulsive personality and so all it took for me to volunteer for Mission Rabies for the first time was an email just after January exams sent by a fellow student. Mission Rabies was going to conduct their very first project in 10 cities across India and was looking for volunteers to help. Five months later, I was running around houses adjacent to Kolkata airport in 40-degree heat with a team of 5 Indian dog catchers – it was the most fun I’ve ever had, and I resolved to make this a big part of my life.
Tell us about your career since graduating from Liverpool.
I graduated in 2017 and was fortunate enough to be offered an internship with Mission Rabies straight after graduation. I dipped my toe in general practice part-time for a month or so, but it wasn’t for me. I have been full-time with Mission Rabies and the Worldwide Veterinary Service since 2018. Working for them took me to multiple project sites across Africa and Asia over the next three years, planning and running Mass Canine Rabies Vaccination Campaigns with governments and local charities. I had the UK as a base and would be out in a new location every six weeks or so, for two- to ten-week placements in Uganda, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Malawi, India etc.
Just before the pandemic, I was asked to go to one of our International Training Centres in Chiang Mai, Thailand to help our new Thai Head Vet transition into her new role. I ended up being locked down in Thailand due to Covid and have since made it my home.
I am now based in South-East Asia, forwarding rabies and animal welfare projects in the region, surrounded by an amazing team.
Can you describe a typical day or week in your role as International Projects Manager for Mission Rabies?
My role for Mission Rabies is split into two parts: project management, planning, and fieldwork.
Project management and planning is very much laptop based. I will have meetings with our staff across South East Asia in the mornings, and crack on with writing project proposals, working in QGIS on mapping vaccination campaigns and writing training materials. I then touch-base with the UK HQ in the afternoons when the working hours overlap.
The fieldwork is where it gets a bit more varied. I travel to one of our project sites in South East Asia about every two months. The aim of this travel is to hold meetings with our government partners and other rabies stakeholders, sitting down and figuring out the needs of the country and how we can support this from a rabies surveillance, rabies education and/or rabies mass dog vaccination point-of-view.
Alongside my team, I run practical and theoretical training workshops with in-country partners on Integrated Bite Case Management. This is a surveillance system developed by the US-CDC and Mission Rabies which take human bite cases and identifies where suspected rabid dogs require capture and euthanasia. This is done through a series of structured questionnaires, in-person investigation and submitting samples for official diagnosis.
Then we have the Mass Canine Vaccination campaigns. Using my most recent example, we vaccinated nearly 75,000 dogs in just 10 days within the Capital Provinces of Cambodia. My role was lead project manager, and I coordinated over 550 people in 120 vaccination units across three hubs through the city of Phnom Penh. Picture an army of tuk-tuks traversing the entire province, vaccinating every dog they find!
Could you describe a memorable moment or success story from your time with Mission Rabies that illustrates the impact of your work on communities and animal welfare?
One success story I can share demonstrates the essential work that our education teams do in the communities where rabies is prevalent. I often say that it is this educational work that is saving lives, because it can inform behaviour and response ahead of our vaccination teams arriving.
A dog entered a village in remote Malawi, bit five people and then died. A young girl had recently received a rabies education lesson from one of our school teams and was insistent to her elders that those who had been bitten needed to make the 20km journey to receive their post-exposure vaccinations. Fortunately, they listened to her, and her parents were also able to contact our surveillance team. The surveillance team then collected the remains of the dog for testing. The dog tested positive for rabies, meaning that the actions of the local girl (and by extension the education delivered by our team) saved five lives.
What motivates you personally to continue working towards the goal of eliminating rabies worldwide?
Rabies is a 100% preventable disease through canine and human vaccination. I see the effect that simple, low-cost initiatives can have on this disease, and it is my role to demonstrate and create sustainable solutions which can be implemented to save lives in affected countries.
Mission Rabies made a video in 2015 of Emma, a mother from Malawi, in which she tells the harrowing story of her son who was bitten by a dog. Her family did not know that they needed to seek medical attention, and the boy died in the horrific way that rabies induces. Her pain in retelling this story is one of my motivations to continue working in this field.
What advice would you give to current veterinary students or alumni who are interested in following in your footsteps into a career in international veterinary medicine or global health initiatives?
When I was offered my internship with Mission Rabies, I knew that I wanted to accept it because of the volunteering opportunities I had taken throughout Vet School (I even snuck off for two weeks to go to Malawi just before 3rd year finals). While I therefore recommend volunteering opportunities to students and alumni, I recognise that I was in a privileged position of being able to support myself while volunteering – something which is not possible for everyone.
An alternative route that a colleague of mine followed was being involved with the International Veterinary Students Association (IVSA). This is a valuable way to make international and charity connections and build the sort of skills that you need for international veterinary medicine.
What can alumni do to support the work of Mission Rabies?
Alumni can volunteer on a Mission Rabies project or with the Worldwide Veterinary Service (WVS). Mission Rabies projects vaccinate dogs in project around the world; the next one that I am running is Cambodia in October 2024 and it is open to veterinary professionals and non-vets alike.
WVS is always looking for a variety of skilled veterinary surgeons to volunteer at our International Training Centres (Thailand, India, and Malawi) as surgical instructors. There is also an extensive range of other projects that work on providing treatments to animals in need globally.
Finally, we are a charity. If anyone can support our work financially, we send aid parcels out to over 100 charities worldwide, getting vital medicines and equipment out to reach even more animals in need.
Thank you, Amy, for helping us both mark World Zoonoses Day 2024 and celebrate our global veterinary alumni community.
If you are interested in volunteering or donating to the WVS, please visit their website.
If you have a story to share with ULVAA, we would love to hear from you at ulvaa@liv.ac.uk.