Dog bites on rise [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Dog bites on rise

Local September 21, 2015

The number of people suffering feral dog bites across the country increased in recent times with a rise in dog population in the absence of culling and sterilization.
National Rabies Elimination Programme coordinator SM Emran Ali attributed the increasing occurrence of dog bites to a swelling of stray dog population.
He said he found, ‘Dogs in packs of up to eight roaming on the lanes and they usually bit children for nagging them.’
He called it a recent development after do culling was banned in 2012.
At least 200 dog bite victims from the capital and the nearby areas took treatment each day, shows the records of the Infectious Disease Hospital at Mohakhali.
IDH acting director Anjuman Ara said that the IDH lacked modern facilities to treat rabies patients many of whom go there due to increased awareness.
IDH can provide only some medicines and vaccines, she said.
The IDH even does not have the Intensive Care Units and enough doctors and technicians to attend the patients of communicable diseases.
The records of the Health Services show that at least 600 victims take the treatments at government hospitals in the outlying areas each day.
In the first seven months of the current year, approximately 1,20,880 dog bite victims took treatments at government hospitals across the country, while throughout the year 2012, the number of victims who took the treatments at hospitals stood at 1,23,280, according to the statistics relating to the health services’ programme for the control of emerging-re-emerging diseases.
The number of the victims would be much higher if those who visited quacks or ‘ojhas’ avoiding the hospitals were counted, said doctors.
At least, 71 per cent of the victims died because they visited hospitals after suffering rabies while taking treatments from the quacks.
At least 42 per cent of dog bite victims were children, mostly boys under 15.
Physicians at the IDH said that attacks by stray dogs increased in recent times.
The number of people visiting hospital after suffering dog bites also increased, they said.
In 2010, 2,147 people died across the country after suffering rabies while 1,445 died in 2012 due to rabies, according separate annual surveys conducted by the Health Services.
At IDH, 104 rabies patients died in 2010, 109 in 2011, 88 in 2012, 86 in 2013 and 97 in 2014.
In 2014, rabies caused by dog bites accounted for 83 per cent of the deaths, which cat bites caused 10 per cent of rabies deaths, fox bites accounted for four per cent and three per cent due to mongoose bites.
According to the Health services, 65 district based rabies prevention and control centres provided anti rabies vaccines to the victims free of charges.
Physicians said that mass vaccination of 12 lakh dogs could eradicate rabies from the country.
In 2011, the Health Services launched a dog vaccination programme to free Bangladesh from rabies by 2020.
Until now, only two lakh dogs could be vaccinated only once in the municipal towns across the country.
The programme was moving at a very slow pace, said observers.
Each dog has to be vaccinated thrice, they said.
Mahmudur Rahman, director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research, in short IEDCR, said that for the complete eradication of rabies there was no alternative to vaccinating the dogs.
Rabies causes 100 per mortality of the patients, he said.
He called for raising awareness about dog bites which causes 95 per cent rabies, he said.
According to health bulletin of the health services for 2014, each year between two and three lakh people suffer dog bites.
The stray dog population swelled in the capital and the rest of the country due to ban of culling and suspension of sterilization activities, said city corporation officials.
Stray dog population swelled rapidly in the cities and the countryside as each doggie gives birth to up to eight puppies a year.
In 2012, the two city corporations in the capital under a contract assigned the local NGO, Obhoyaronno to sterilize stray dogs and vaccinate them against rabies.
Health Services officials said that approximately 10,000 stray dogs were sterilized by Obhoyaronno in the capital until 2014.
They said over 150,000 stray dogs still roamed freely in the capital.
An Obhoyaronno official said that their activities to sterilize stray dogs and vaccinate them against rabies ended on the expiry of the contact n 2014.