About one person every 10 minutes dies of rabies somewhere in the world.

This harsh statistic has brought together for the first time leaders from veterinary, animal wildlife, and human medicine to create an Alliance for Rabies Control, a non-profit group based in the United Kingdom. The group’s first major happening is the declaration of World Rabies Day on Sept. 8, 2007.

The World Rabies Day coordination team is inviting partnerships with international health organizations; national, state, and local public health partners; professional organizations; commercial pharmaceutical companies; and foundations.

While much of the push is toward eradication of rabies in canine species, there is also education outreach in all areas of domestic and wild animal rabies control, with the end result of reducing the number of human rabies deaths in the world