Guest guest Posted August 9, 2006 Report Share Posted August 9, 2006 Humane Society Offers Aid for China Dogs By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: August 9, 2006 BEIJING (AP) -- The Humane Society on Wednesday said it will give China $100,000 to vaccinate dogs against rabies if it promises to immediately stop their mass slaughter in areas where humans have died from the disease. The financial aid was offered to help set up a rabies control program in Jining, a city in the coastal province of Shandong, where officials last week killed thousands of dogs after 16 people died of rabies over an eight-month period. ''There are far better ways of addressing rabies control to promote the safety of your citizens, the good reputation of China and the welfare of dogs,'' Wayne Pacelle, president of The Humane Society of the United States, said in an open letter to China's ambassador in Washington. An official with the Ministry of Agriculture's media affairs office declined to immediately comment and asked to first see a Chinese translation of the Humane Society's statement. He refused to give his name. Officials in Mouding, a county in the southern province of Yunnan, last month clubbed to death more than 50,000 dogs after rabies killed three people in the area. The killings provoked unusually pointed criticism in Chinese state media, while the activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals called for a boycott of Chinese products. The official newspaper Legal Daily published an editorial calling the killings an ''extraordinarily crude, cold-blooded and lazy way for the government to deal with epidemic disease.'' The main Xinhua News Agency said in a separate editorial that the slaughter was ''the only way out of a bad situation.'' The Humane Society said the money was conditional on China agreeing to stop the mass killing of dogs and accepting the group's help in establishing a nationwide rabies control program that relies on vaccinations. The government says 70 percent of rural households have dogs, but just 3 percent are vaccinated against the disease. The Beijing Morning Post on Wednesday reported that Qingdao, a major port city in Shandong province, was carrying out a campaign to vaccinate 40,000 dogs between now and the end of September. The newspaper said owners who did not comply would be fined. The Chinese Health Ministry reported 2,375 rabies deaths last year nationwide. Rabies infections in China have soared as newly prosperous families buy dogs as pets. The rabies virus attacks the nervous system and usually kills humans within a week of the development of symptoms. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-China-Dog-Killings.html?_r=1 & oref=slogi\ n ===================================================== From the Humane Society International (HSI) >> HSI Asia site: HSI to China: Stop Mass Dog Killings, and Adopt Humane Rabies Prevention August 4, 2006 By Bernard Unti The news of a government-ordered onslaught in late July that killed 50,000 dogs in Mouding County in Yunnan Province in southwestern China, and reports of an impending second dog kill in east China's Shandong Province, mark a terrible stage in a long-running debate over effective rabies control in the developing world. The brutality and scope of the five-day Yunnan slaughter—which spared only military and police dogs—prompted waves of criticism both within and outside of China. Reacting to the killing, Humane Society International, the global arm of The HSUS, urged the Chinese government to adopt humane and effective rabies prevention strategies. Citing its experience in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Indonesia, HSI also offered to assist Chinese government at all levels in efforts to avoid such an episode in the future.. Controlling Rabies in Asia Rabies is a serious problem in China and in other parts of Asia. Asia has the highest reported global incidence of rabies, accounting for between 80 and 90 percent of the worldwide total. In recent years, China has had the second-highest reported rates of human illness and death from rabies with at least 2650 deaths recorded in 2004 (India surpasses all other nations with approximately 30,000 rabies deaths per year). The disease is especially prominent in the southern provinces bordered by the Yangtse River, where the human-to-dog ratio is somewhat higher. According to a December 2005 Chinese-led study, dogs are the pivotal vector in an estimated 85 to 95 percent of rabies cases, and some 50 to 70 percent occur in rural areas. A number of Asian countries, including Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore, have successfully eradicated rabies through animal control and immunization programs. And the evidence favoring vaccination strategies continues to grow. In a November 2004 medical journal article, five international public health specialists focused on a rabies outbreak on Flores Island, Indonesia argued that " massive culling of the dog population, without an intensive vaccination campaign of the survivors, will not arrest an outbreak. In India, there is preliminary data that capture, neuter, vaccinate, and release programs may be able to eliminate human rabies as a serious problem. Such programs have reduced the number of human rabies cases in Jaipur, Bangalore, and Chennai, and a controlled study is now underway in Jodphur, with support from HSI and other organizations. Mandatory mass vaccination campaigns would present their own challenges, including acquiring supplies of vaccine, mobilizing trained vaccinators, distributing public education materials, and developing appropriate logistical facilities (transport, coolers, etc.) and medical infrastructure in rural communities. With reports of about 70 percent of rural households in China keeping dogs, however, the urgency and necessity of a modern rabies control program coordinated by human health, animal health, and municipal authorities should be self-evident. Such a program would naturally complement the increased popularity of dogs in China. After being shunned as symbols of bourgeois decadence in the decades of Mao Zedong's leadership, there has been a marked increase in the number of owned dogs in the country, and there may be as many as 150 million pet dogs in the world's most populous nation—one for every nine people. In Beijing, where pet owners spend an estimated 60 million U.S. dollars on their pets every year, canine rabies has reportedly been contained through licensing and compulsory vaccination programs. That's not the only good news coming from the Chinese capital, either. The Legal Daily, a state-owned newspaper issued by the Ministry of Justice, responded to reports of the killings by blasting local and regional officials. Perhaps anticipating the pressure that many hope the central government will bring to bear upon its provincial counterparts, the newspaper disdained the killings as an " extraordinarily crude, cold-blooded and lazy way for the government to deal with epidemic disease. " http://www.hsus.org/about_us/humane_society_international_hsi/hsi_asia/china_rab\ ies_prevention.html ===================================================== From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) site: Page Contents Public health importance of rabies Cost of rabies prevention The cost of rabies worldwide Rabies is a preventable viral disease of mammals most often transmitted through the bite of a rabid animal. The vast majority of rabies cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) each year occur in wild animals like raccoons, skunks, bats, and foxes. Domestic animals account for less than 10% of the reported rabies cases, with cats, cattle, and dogs most often reported rabid. Rabies virus infects the central nervous system, causing encephalopathy and ultimately death. Early symptoms of rabies in humans are nonspecific, consisting of fever, headache, and general malaise. As the disease progresses, neurological symptoms appear and may include insomnia, anxiety, confusion, slight or partial paralysis, excitation, hallucinations, agitation, hypersalivation, difficulty swallowing, and hydrophobia (fear of water). Death usually occurs within days of the onset of symptoms. Public health importance of rabies Over the last 100 years, rabies in the United States has changed dramatically. More than 90% of all animal cases reported annually to CDC now occur in wildlife; before 1960 the majority were in domestic animals. The principal rabies hosts today are wild carnivores and bats.. The number of rabies-related human deaths in the United States has declined from more than 100 annually at the turn of the century to one or two per year in the1990's. Modern day prophylaxis has proven nearly 100% successful. In the United States, human fatalities associated with rabies occur in people who fail to seek medical assistance, usually because they were unaware of their exposure. Cost of rabies prevention Although human rabies deaths are rare, the estimated public health costs associated with disease detection, prevention, and control have risen, exceeding $300 million annually. These costs include the vaccination of companion animals, animal control programs, maintenance of rabies laboratories, and medical costs, such as those incurred for rabies postexposure prophylaxis (PEP). Accurate estimates of these expenditures are not available. Although the number of PEPs given in the United States each year is unknown, it is estimated to be about 40,000. When rabies becomes epizootic or enzootic in a region, the number of PEPs in that area increases. Although the cost varies, a course of rabies immune globulin and five doses of vaccine given over a 4-week period typically exceeds $1,000. The cost per human life saved from rabies ranges from approximately $10,000 to $100 million, depending on the nature of the exposure and the probability of rabies in a region. The cost of rabies worldwide Customarily, the level of international resources committed to the control of an infectious disease is a response to the associated human morbidity and mortality. For most infectious diseases, these data adequately reflect the deserved public health attention. It is difficult, however, to estimate the global impact of rabies by using only human mortality data. Because vaccines to prevent human rabies have been available for more than 100 years, most deaths from rabies occur in countries with inadequate public health resources and limited access to preventive treatment. These countries also have few diagnostic facilities and almost no rabies surveillance. Underreporting is a characteristic of almost every infectious disease in developing countries, and increasing the estimated human mortality does not in itself increase the relative public health importance of rabies. There is, however, one often neglected aspect of rabies that does affect perception of its importance. Rabies is not, in the natural sense, a disease of humans. Human infection is incidental to the reservoir of disease in wild and domestic animals; therefore, a more accurate projection of the impact of rabies on public health should include an estimate of the extent to which the animal population is affected and the expense involved in preventing transmission of rabies from animals to humans. An additional figure is needed to complete the global picture of rabies. The best estimates of the impact of rabies on a country and the public health resources available within that country for rabies control are found in data for the number and distribution of cases of rabies in domestic animals. Despite evidence that control of dog rabies through programs of animal vaccination and elimination of stray dogs can reduce the incidence of human rabies, exposure to rabid dogs is still the cause of over 90% of human exposures to rabies and of over 99% of human deaths worldwide. The cost of these programs prohibits their full implementation in much of the developing world, and in even the most prosperous countries the cost of an effective dog rabies control program is a drain on public health resources. The estimated annual expenditure for rabies prevention in the United States is over US$300 million, most of which is spent on dog vaccinations. An annual turnover of approximately 25% in the dog population necessitates revaccination of millions of animals each year, and reintroduction of rabies through transport of infected animals from outside a controlled area is always a possibility should control programs lapse. Reservoirs of wildlife rabies, virtually unknown in Asia and tropical regions, are also potential sources of rabies infection for dogs in Europe and North America. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rabies/Introduction/intro.htm#Cost%20of%20rabies%\ 20prevention Send instant messages to your online friends http://au.messenger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 9, 2006 Report Share Posted August 9, 2006 The HSUS and HSI are to be congratulated for their rapid, generous and most appropriate response to the mass dog killing in China. All of us in Asia look forward to a rapid implementation of a mass vaccination programme in place of the ineffective sporadic killing done at present. S. Chinny Krishna Chairman - Blue Cross of India Former Vice Chair - Animal Welfare Board, Government of India Cate [cateanna] Wednesday, August 09, 2006 5:56 PM aapn HSUS offers China US$100,000 Humane Society Offers Aid for China Dogs By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: August 9, 2006 BEIJING (AP) -- The Humane Society on Wednesday said it will give China $100,000 to vaccinate dogs against rabies if it promises to immediately stop their mass slaughter in areas where humans have died from the disease. The financial aid was offered to help set up a rabies control program in Jining, a city in the coastal province of Shandong, where officials last week killed thousands of dogs after 16 people died of rabies over an eight-month period. ''There are far better ways of addressing rabies control to promote the safety of your citizens, the good reputation of China and the welfare of dogs,'' Wayne Pacelle, president of The Humane Society of the United States, said in an open letter to China's ambassador in Washington. An official with the Ministry of Agriculture's media affairs office declined to immediately comment and asked to first see a Chinese translation of the Humane Society's statement. He refused to give his name. Officials in Mouding, a county in the southern province of Yunnan, last month clubbed to death more than 50,000 dogs after rabies killed three people in the area. The killings provoked unusually pointed criticism in Chinese state media, while the activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals called for a boycott of Chinese products. The official newspaper Legal Daily published an editorial calling the killings an ''extraordinarily crude, cold-blooded and lazy way for the government to deal with epidemic disease.'' The main Xinhua News Agency said in a separate editorial that the slaughter was ''the only way out of a bad situation.'' The Humane Society said the money was conditional on China agreeing to stop the mass killing of dogs and accepting the group's help in establishing a nationwide rabies control program that relies on vaccinations. The government says 70 percent of rural households have dogs, but just 3 percent are vaccinated against the disease. The Beijing Morning Post on Wednesday reported that Qingdao, a major port city in Shandong province, was carrying out a campaign to vaccinate 40,000 dogs between now and the end of September. The newspaper said owners who did not comply would be fined. The Chinese Health Ministry reported 2,375 rabies deaths last year nationwide. Rabies infections in China have soared as newly prosperous families buy dogs as pets. The rabies virus attacks the nervous system and usually kills humans within a week of the development of symptoms. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-China-Dog-Killings.html?_r=1 & oref=s login ===================================================== >From the Humane Society International (HSI) >> HSI Asia site: HSI to China: Stop Mass Dog Killings, and Adopt Humane Rabies Prevention August 4, 2006 By Bernard Unti The news of a government-ordered onslaught in late July that killed 50,000 dogs in Mouding County in Yunnan Province in southwestern China, and reports of an impending second dog kill in east China's Shandong Province, mark a terrible stage in a long-running debate over effective rabies control in the developing world. The brutality and scope of the five-day Yunnan slaughter—which spared only military and police dogs—prompted waves of criticism both within and outside of China. Reacting to the killing, Humane Society International, the global arm of The HSUS, urged the Chinese government to adopt humane and effective rabies prevention strategies. Citing its experience in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Indonesia, HSI also offered to assist Chinese government at all levels in efforts to avoid such an episode in the future.. Controlling Rabies in Asia Rabies is a serious problem in China and in other parts of Asia. Asia has the highest reported global incidence of rabies, accounting for between 80 and 90 percent of the worldwide total. In recent years, China has had the second-highest reported rates of human illness and death from rabies with at least 2650 deaths recorded in 2004 (India surpasses all other nations with approximately 30,000 rabies deaths per year). The disease is especially prominent in the southern provinces bordered by the Yangtse River, where the human-to-dog ratio is somewhat higher. According to a December 2005 Chinese-led study, dogs are the pivotal vector in an estimated 85 to 95 percent of rabies cases, and some 50 to 70 percent occur in rural areas. A number of Asian countries, including Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore, have successfully eradicated rabies through animal control and immunization programs. And the evidence favoring vaccination strategies continues to grow. In a November 2004 medical journal article, five international public health specialists focused on a rabies outbreak on Flores Island, Indonesia argued that " massive culling of the dog population, without an intensive vaccination campaign of the survivors, will not arrest an outbreak. In India, there is preliminary data that capture, neuter, vaccinate, and release programs may be able to eliminate human rabies as a serious problem. Such programs have reduced the number of human rabies cases in Jaipur, Bangalore, and Chennai, and a controlled study is now underway in Jodphur, with support from HSI and other organizations. Mandatory mass vaccination campaigns would present their own challenges, including acquiring supplies of vaccine, mobilizing trained vaccinators, distributing public education materials, and developing appropriate logistical facilities (transport, coolers, etc.) and medical infrastructure in rural communities. With reports of about 70 percent of rural households in China keeping dogs, however, the urgency and necessity of a modern rabies control program coordinated by human health, animal health, and municipal authorities should be self-evident. Such a program would naturally complement the increased popularity of dogs in China. After being shunned as symbols of bourgeois decadence in the decades of Mao Zedong's leadership, there has been a marked increase in the number of owned dogs in the country, and there may be as many as 150 million pet dogs in the world's most populous nation—one for every nine people. In Beijing, where pet owners spend an estimated 60 million U.S. dollars on their pets every year, canine rabies has reportedly been contained through licensing and compulsory vaccination programs. That's not the only good news coming from the Chinese capital, either. The Legal Daily, a state-owned newspaper issued by the Ministry of Justice, responded to reports of the killings by blasting local and regional officials. Perhaps anticipating the pressure that many hope the central government will bring to bear upon its provincial counterparts, the newspaper disdained the killings as an " extraordinarily crude, cold-blooded and lazy way for the government to deal with epidemic disease. " http://www.hsus.org/about_us/humane_society_international_hsi/hsi_asia/china _rabies_prevention.html ===================================================== >From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) site: Page Contents Public health importance of rabies Cost of rabies prevention The cost of rabies worldwide Rabies is a preventable viral disease of mammals most often transmitted through the bite of a rabid animal. The vast majority of rabies cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) each year occur in wild animals like raccoons, skunks, bats, and foxes. Domestic animals account for less than 10% of the reported rabies cases, with cats, cattle, and dogs most often reported rabid. Rabies virus infects the central nervous system, causing encephalopathy and ultimately death. Early symptoms of rabies in humans are nonspecific, consisting of fever, headache, and general malaise. As the disease progresses, neurological symptoms appear and may include insomnia, anxiety, confusion, slight or partial paralysis, excitation, hallucinations, agitation, hypersalivation, difficulty swallowing, and hydrophobia (fear of water). Death usually occurs within days of the onset of symptoms. Public health importance of rabies Over the last 100 years, rabies in the United States has changed dramatically. More than 90% of all animal cases reported annually to CDC now occur in wildlife; before 1960 the majority were in domestic animals. The principal rabies hosts today are wild carnivores and bats.. The number of rabies-related human deaths in the United States has declined from more than 100 annually at the turn of the century to one or two per year in the1990's. Modern day prophylaxis has proven nearly 100% successful. In the United States, human fatalities associated with rabies occur in people who fail to seek medical assistance, usually because they were unaware of their exposure. Cost of rabies prevention Although human rabies deaths are rare, the estimated public health costs associated with disease detection, prevention, and control have risen, exceeding $300 million annually. These costs include the vaccination of companion animals, animal control programs, maintenance of rabies laboratories, and medical costs, such as those incurred for rabies postexposure prophylaxis (PEP). Accurate estimates of these expenditures are not available. Although the number of PEPs given in the United States each year is unknown, it is estimated to be about 40,000. When rabies becomes epizootic or enzootic in a region, the number of PEPs in that area increases. Although the cost varies, a course of rabies immune globulin and five doses of vaccine given over a 4-week period typically exceeds $1,000. The cost per human life saved from rabies ranges from approximately $10,000 to $100 million, depending on the nature of the exposure and the probability of rabies in a region. The cost of rabies worldwide Customarily, the level of international resources committed to the control of an infectious disease is a response to the associated human morbidity and mortality. For most infectious diseases, these data adequately reflect the deserved public health attention. It is difficult, however, to estimate the global impact of rabies by using only human mortality data. Because vaccines to prevent human rabies have been available for more than 100 years, most deaths from rabies occur in countries with inadequate public health resources and limited access to preventive treatment. These countries also have few diagnostic facilities and almost no rabies surveillance. Underreporting is a characteristic of almost every infectious disease in developing countries, and increasing the estimated human mortality does not in itself increase the relative public health importance of rabies. There is, however, one often neglected aspect of rabies that does affect perception of its importance. Rabies is not, in the natural sense, a disease of humans. Human infection is incidental to the reservoir of disease in wild and domestic animals; therefore, a more accurate projection of the impact of rabies on public health should include an estimate of the extent to which the animal population is affected and the expense involved in preventing transmission of rabies from animals to humans. An additional figure is needed to complete the global picture of rabies. The best estimates of the impact of rabies on a country and the public health resources available within that country for rabies control are found in data for the number and distribution of cases of rabies in domestic animals. Despite evidence that control of dog rabies through programs of animal vaccination and elimination of stray dogs can reduce the incidence of human rabies, exposure to rabid dogs is still the cause of over 90% of human exposures to rabies and of over 99% of human deaths worldwide. The cost of these programs prohibits their full implementation in much of the developing world, and in even the most prosperous countries the cost of an effective dog rabies control program is a drain on public health resources. The estimated annual expenditure for rabies prevention in the United States is over US$300 million, most of which is spent on dog vaccinations. An annual turnover of approximately 25% in the dog population necessitates revaccination of millions of animals each year, and reintroduction of rabies through transport of infected animals from outside a controlled area is always a possibility should control programs lapse. Reservoirs of wildlife rabies, virtually unknown in Asia and tropical regions, are also potential sources of rabies infection for dogs in Europe and North America. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rabies/Introduction/intro.htm#Cost%20of%20rab ies%20prevention Send instant messages to your online friends http://au.messenger. For more information on Asian animal issues, please use the search feature on the AAPN website: http://www.aapn.org/ or search the list archives at: aapn Please feel free to send any relevant news or comments to the list at aapn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 10, 2006 Report Share Posted August 10, 2006 Dear Friends, HSUS is to be highly appreciated for their immediate response. And if accepted could pave the way for the composition of Animal Welfare Rules in China! However, if I could suggest to make this more effective with available possibilities that the method adopted needs convincing for them to be satisfied and readily proven ofcourse alongwith this generous offer. And they need a permanent solution and convincing otherwise they will reject. And it is not only China that is a problem but the whole of Asia where the killings are going on for various reasons and rapidly. As there are very potential groups out there in China thus these killings are being reported and protested widely. Dogs and cats killed everywhere in Asia where the needs will be more education and proven records. India with one of the best animal welfare laws and rules can be targetted as an illustration. The Indian Government under Animal Welfare Board of India can be associated for setting as a Role Model for the other Asian countries. Thus, generous and practical minded groups like HSUS can linkup with Indian Government and Animal Welfare Board of India, Chennai to provide whatever services they can provide and it is much easier here to prove with all the available laws and ready techniques and spread immediately to other Asian countries as an example. Apart from technical assistance the lobbying has to be made at the Government level. My suggestion is based on providing a more pragmmatic example of proving and India can be taken as an example but needs all the assistance and this is easily done here . Maybe India could be played as Role Model for other Asian countries but India needs the generous guidance and then an entire code of conduct maybe done for the Asian countries --- a joint session of these countries. If China agrees now to stop this based on the gurantee of mass vaccination then the next step has to be followed before they do it again and also nobody likes the dogs and cats to be killed and eaten. That is another campaign. Just my suggestions for improvement and the use of available opportunity. Warm regards, Pradeep Kumar Nath, President, Visakha SPCA, Visakhapatnam, A.P., India. web: www:visakhaspca.org " Dr.Chinny Krishna " <drkrishna wrote: The HSUS and HSI are to be congratulated for their rapid, generous and most appropriate response to the mass dog killing in China. All of us in Asia look forward to a rapid implementation of a mass vaccination programme in place of the ineffective sporadic killing done at present. S. Chinny Krishna Chairman - Blue Cross of India Former Vice Chair - Animal Welfare Board, Government of India Cate [cateanna] Wednesday, August 09, 2006 5:56 PM aapn HSUS offers China US$100,000 Humane Society Offers Aid for China Dogs By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: August 9, 2006 BEIJING (AP) -- The Humane Society on Wednesday said it will give China $100,000 to vaccinate dogs against rabies if it promises to immediately stop their mass slaughter in areas where humans have died from the disease. The financial aid was offered to help set up a rabies control program in Jining, a city in the coastal province of Shandong, where officials last week killed thousands of dogs after 16 people died of rabies over an eight-month period. ''There are far better ways of addressing rabies control to promote the safety of your citizens, the good reputation of China and the welfare of dogs,'' Wayne Pacelle, president of The Humane Society of the United States, said in an open letter to China's ambassador in Washington. An official with the Ministry of Agriculture's media affairs office declined to immediately comment and asked to first see a Chinese translation of the Humane Society's statement. He refused to give his name. Officials in Mouding, a county in the southern province of Yunnan, last month clubbed to death more than 50,000 dogs after rabies killed three people in the area. The killings provoked unusually pointed criticism in Chinese state media, while the activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals called for a boycott of Chinese products. The official newspaper Legal Daily published an editorial calling the killings an ''extraordinarily crude, cold-blooded and lazy way for the government to deal with epidemic disease.'' The main Xinhua News Agency said in a separate editorial that the slaughter was ''the only way out of a bad situation.'' The Humane Society said the money was conditional on China agreeing to stop the mass killing of dogs and accepting the group's help in establishing a nationwide rabies control program that relies on vaccinations. The government says 70 percent of rural households have dogs, but just 3 percent are vaccinated against the disease. The Beijing Morning Post on Wednesday reported that Qingdao, a major port city in Shandong province, was carrying out a campaign to vaccinate 40,000 dogs between now and the end of September. The newspaper said owners who did not comply would be fined. The Chinese Health Ministry reported 2,375 rabies deaths last year nationwide. Rabies infections in China have soared as newly prosperous families buy dogs as pets. The rabies virus attacks the nervous system and usually kills humans within a week of the development of symptoms. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-China-Dog-Killings.html?_r=1 & oref=s login ===================================================== >From the Humane Society International (HSI) >> HSI Asia site: HSI to China: Stop Mass Dog Killings, and Adopt Humane Rabies Prevention August 4, 2006 By Bernard Unti The news of a government-ordered onslaught in late July that killed 50,000 dogs in Mouding County in Yunnan Province in southwestern China, and reports of an impending second dog kill in east China's Shandong Province, mark a terrible stage in a long-running debate over effective rabies control in the developing world. The brutality and scope of the five-day Yunnan slaughter—which spared only military and police dogs—prompted waves of criticism both within and outside of China. Reacting to the killing, Humane Society International, the global arm of The HSUS, urged the Chinese government to adopt humane and effective rabies prevention strategies. Citing its experience in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Indonesia, HSI also offered to assist Chinese government at all levels in efforts to avoid such an episode in the future.. Controlling Rabies in Asia Rabies is a serious problem in China and in other parts of Asia. Asia has the highest reported global incidence of rabies, accounting for between 80 and 90 percent of the worldwide total. In recent years, China has had the second-highest reported rates of human illness and death from rabies with at least 2650 deaths recorded in 2004 (India surpasses all other nations with approximately 30,000 rabies deaths per year). The disease is especially prominent in the southern provinces bordered by the Yangtse River, where the human-to-dog ratio is somewhat higher. According to a December 2005 Chinese-led study, dogs are the pivotal vector in an estimated 85 to 95 percent of rabies cases, and some 50 to 70 percent occur in rural areas. A number of Asian countries, including Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore, have successfully eradicated rabies through animal control and immunization programs. And the evidence favoring vaccination strategies continues to grow. In a November 2004 medical journal article, five international public health specialists focused on a rabies outbreak on Flores Island, Indonesia argued that " massive culling of the dog population, without an intensive vaccination campaign of the survivors, will not arrest an outbreak. In India, there is preliminary data that capture, neuter, vaccinate, and release programs may be able to eliminate human rabies as a serious problem. Such programs have reduced the number of human rabies cases in Jaipur, Bangalore, and Chennai, and a controlled study is now underway in Jodphur, with support from HSI and other organizations. Mandatory mass vaccination campaigns would present their own challenges, including acquiring supplies of vaccine, mobilizing trained vaccinators, distributing public education materials, and developing appropriate logistical facilities (transport, coolers, etc.) and medical infrastructure in rural communities. With reports of about 70 percent of rural households in China keeping dogs, however, the urgency and necessity of a modern rabies control program coordinated by human health, animal health, and municipal authorities should be self-evident. Such a program would naturally complement the increased popularity of dogs in China. After being shunned as symbols of bourgeois decadence in the decades of Mao Zedong's leadership, there has been a marked increase in the number of owned dogs in the country, and there may be as many as 150 million pet dogs in the world's most populous nation—one for every nine people. In Beijing, where pet owners spend an estimated 60 million U.S. dollars on their pets every year, canine rabies has reportedly been contained through licensing and compulsory vaccination programs. That's not the only good news coming from the Chinese capital, either. The Legal Daily, a state-owned newspaper issued by the Ministry of Justice, responded to reports of the killings by blasting local and regional officials. Perhaps anticipating the pressure that many hope the central government will bring to bear upon its provincial counterparts, the newspaper disdained the killings as an " extraordinarily crude, cold-blooded and lazy way for the government to deal with epidemic disease. " http://www.hsus.org/about_us/humane_society_international_hsi/hsi_asia/china _rabies_prevention.html ===================================================== >From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) site: Page Contents Public health importance of rabies Cost of rabies prevention The cost of rabies worldwide Rabies is a preventable viral disease of mammals most often transmitted through the bite of a rabid animal. The vast majority of rabies cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) each year occur in wild animals like raccoons, skunks, bats, and foxes. Domestic animals account for less than 10% of the reported rabies cases, with cats, cattle, and dogs most often reported rabid. Rabies virus infects the central nervous system, causing encephalopathy and ultimately death. Early symptoms of rabies in humans are nonspecific, consisting of fever, headache, and general malaise. As the disease progresses, neurological symptoms appear and may include insomnia, anxiety, confusion, slight or partial paralysis, excitation, hallucinations, agitation, hypersalivation, difficulty swallowing, and hydrophobia (fear of water). Death usually occurs within days of the onset of symptoms. Public health importance of rabies Over the last 100 years, rabies in the United States has changed dramatically. More than 90% of all animal cases reported annually to CDC now occur in wildlife; before 1960 the majority were in domestic animals. The principal rabies hosts today are wild carnivores and bats.. The number of rabies-related human deaths in the United States has declined from more than 100 annually at the turn of the century to one or two per year in the1990's. Modern day prophylaxis has proven nearly 100% successful. In the United States, human fatalities associated with rabies occur in people who fail to seek medical assistance, usually because they were unaware of their exposure. Cost of rabies prevention Although human rabies deaths are rare, the estimated public health costs associated with disease detection, prevention, and control have risen, exceeding $300 million annually. These costs include the vaccination of companion animals, animal control programs, maintenance of rabies laboratories, and medical costs, such as those incurred for rabies postexposure prophylaxis (PEP). Accurate estimates of these expenditures are not available. Although the number of PEPs given in the United States each year is unknown, it is estimated to be about 40,000. When rabies becomes epizootic or enzootic in a region, the number of PEPs in that area increases. Although the cost varies, a course of rabies immune globulin and five doses of vaccine given over a 4-week period typically exceeds $1,000. The cost per human life saved from rabies ranges from approximately $10,000 to $100 million, depending on the nature of the exposure and the probability of rabies in a region. The cost of rabies worldwide Customarily, the level of international resources committed to the control of an infectious disease is a response to the associated human morbidity and mortality. For most infectious diseases, these data adequately reflect the deserved public health attention. It is difficult, however, to estimate the global impact of rabies by using only human mortality data. Because vaccines to prevent human rabies have been available for more than 100 years, most deaths from rabies occur in countries with inadequate public health resources and limited access to preventive treatment. These countries also have few diagnostic facilities and almost no rabies surveillance. Underreporting is a characteristic of almost every infectious disease in developing countries, and increasing the estimated human mortality does not in itself increase the relative public health importance of rabies. There is, however, one often neglected aspect of rabies that does affect perception of its importance. Rabies is not, in the natural sense, a disease of humans. Human infection is incidental to the reservoir of disease in wild and domestic animals; therefore, a more accurate projection of the impact of rabies on public health should include an estimate of the extent to which the animal population is affected and the expense involved in preventing transmission of rabies from animals to humans. An additional figure is needed to complete the global picture of rabies. The best estimates of the impact of rabies on a country and the public health resources available within that country for rabies control are found in data for the number and distribution of cases of rabies in domestic animals. Despite evidence that control of dog rabies through programs of animal vaccination and elimination of stray dogs can reduce the incidence of human rabies, exposure to rabid dogs is still the cause of over 90% of human exposures to rabies and of over 99% of human deaths worldwide. The cost of these programs prohibits their full implementation in much of the developing world, and in even the most prosperous countries the cost of an effective dog rabies control program is a drain on public health resources. The estimated annual expenditure for rabies prevention in the United States is over US$300 million, most of which is spent on dog vaccinations. An annual turnover of approximately 25% in the dog population necessitates revaccination of millions of animals each year, and reintroduction of rabies through transport of infected animals from outside a controlled area is always a possibility should control programs lapse. Reservoirs of wildlife rabies, virtually unknown in Asia and tropical regions, are also potential sources of rabies infection for dogs in Europe and North America. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rabies/Introduction/intro.htm#Cost%20of%20rab ies%20prevention Send instant messages to your online friends http://au.messenger. For more information on Asian animal issues, please use the search feature on the AAPN website: http://www.aapn.org/ or search the list archives at: aapn Please feel free to send any relevant news or comments to the list at aapn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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