Controlling rabies

Around 59,000 people die of rabies every year worldwide, with over 75% of the deaths occurring in Asia and Africa

In the past 10 months, around 186,579 people have been bitten by stray dogs in Sindh. After much hue and cry from the public and media, the provincial government has launched a programme to control the increasing stray dog population and wipe out rabies. Now stray dogs won’t be killed. They will be vaccinated against rabies and then neutered to prevent an unbridled growth in their population. The programme has been launched by the local government department with the help of NGOs and other concerned segments of society. In the first year, 500,000 stray dogs will be vaccinated and sterilised. The whole process will take 12 days. One rabies vaccination for humans costs Rs700-800 whereas vaccination for a dog costs Rs60-80.

The situation in Sindh as regards the growing population of stray dogs and dog-bite cases had worsened so much so that the Sindh High Court had to intervene. Complying with the court orders the local government authorities culled 34,000 dogs in in the province in the past three months. Besides being inhumane, culling causes environmental pollution. Now the global practice is to vaccinate dogs and neuter them to control their population.

Before the launch of this programme, the government has not shown the required seriousness on the significant issue of rabies and growing population of stray dogs. This is borne out by the fact that World Rabies Day is being observed on Sept 28 since 2007, but this goes largely unnoticed in Pakistan. Dogs suffering from rabies have red eyes, there is frothing at their mouths, bite everything including inanimate objects and are highly sensitive to light. Such dogs die within 10 days after contracting the disease. Now the success of the campaign depends on cooperation between the relevant government departments. Around 59,000 people die of rabies every year worldwide, with over 75 per cent of the deaths occurring in Asia and Africa.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 22^nd, 2019.

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