Fatal accident: Child bitten by stray dog dies

Authorities decide to procure poison from Lahore to start rigorous drive against this menace.

HYDERABAD:

A four-year- old girl died after she was bitten by a stray dog in Hyderabad's Aliabad neighbourhood on Sunday night.

The deceased victim, Saira Chandio, was attacked while she was playing with other children near an embankment of River Indus. Her parents rushed her to Bhitai hospital in Latifabad but she succumbed to her wounds at around 11pm the same day. According to the duty doctor, the dogs ripped off her leg and a part of her skull.

"Several dogs were biting her when we reached there to save her," said her brother, Manzoor Chandio. "We had lost hope that medical attention will save her life because the dogs had eaten her."



According to Saira's father, Mumtaz Chandio, the dogs have developed taste for human flesh and bones as they feed at a nearby cremation site. "We [the residents] have requested the municipality to get rid of these dogs many times but they don't listen to us," he complained.

Deadly bites

As many as 1,497 cases of dog bites were reported in dozens of taluka hospitals, basic health units, dispensaries and other health facilities in 2014, according to the statistics shared by assistant district health officer Dr Altaf Khehro. However, the figure does not include the district's largest government hospital, which alone receives more cases than all the health facilities combined. The medical superintendent of the Civil Hospital, Dr Rafiqul Hassan Khokhar, sought time to share the statistics.

A majority of the dog bite cases, 1,027, were reported in the health facilities in Hyderabad Rural taluka followed by 160 in Latifabad, 132 in City and 78 in Qasimabad talukas. However, most of the cases are referred to Civil hospital because anti-rabies vaccines are often not available in the BHUs, dispensaries and taluka hospitals.

Apart from the children, the polio teams are also frequently attacked by dogs, admitted Dr Khehro. "We receive between three to seven cases of dog bites on each day of the three-day polio campaign," he told The Express Tribune. "Time and again, we write to the deputy commissioner, the municipal commissioner and the TMAs to get rid of the stray dogs but we haven't seen them taking serious action against this menace."

According to Dr Khehro, the dogs become more violent during winter as a large number of cases surface during this season.

How to treat

A patient who has suffered from a dog bite is given five doses of vaccination over a period of one month. Each dose costs between Rs700 to Rs900 while the complete vaccination costs between Rs3,500 to Rs4,500.

Cheaper to kill stray dogs

By this count, the health authorities, excluding Civil hospital, spent at least Rs5.2 million, if not more, on the anti-rabies vaccine in 2014. The amount is far higher in comparison to the expenses that municipalities may incur if they carry out regular campaigns to kill stray dogs.

A kilogramme of poison called strychnine, enough to kill around a 1,000 dogs, costs Rs140,000. The deputy commissioner, Fayaz Hussain Jatoi, who convened a meeting of the municipal officials on Monday, said each of the four talukas in the district will be given a kilogramme of the poison for the next few months. Strychnine is only available in Lahore and, therefore, it will take a few days to get the consignment delivered.

"The financial health of the municipalities is in bad shape," said Jatoi. "The state of affairs in Qasimabad [town municipal administration] is known to all so I have requested Rural taluka's municipal administration to pay for the poison for Qasimabad." The dogs will be buried at a dumping site seven kilometres off Latifabad on Tando Muhammad Khan road.

Meanwhile, other officials in the department are not impressed by the deputy commissioner's claims. "A few days from today, people will forget about the child's death and the need to kill dogs," said a municipal official who requested anonymity. He suggested the authorities go for a long-term solution by making the municipalities financially stable and putting an end to the political appointments and postings.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2015.