(CN) Rabies Prevention

[Guest guest]

South China Morning Post

http://china.scmp.com/chimain/ZZZLK88QLTE.html

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

 

Massive dog inoculation campaign launched as rabies tops killer

disease list

 

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Beijing

 

China has launched a massive national campaign to register and

inoculate dogs after a series of rabies-related deaths resulted in

the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of canines, state press said

on Tuesday.

 

But with up to 150 million estimated dogs unregistered nationwide,

efforts to wipe out rabies — the biggest killer among infectious

diseases in the country over the past five months — may prove

problematic, the China Daily reported.

 

China's health ministry recorded 2,254 cases of rabies infection in

humans in the first nine months of this year, up 26 per cent over the

same period last year, the paper said.

 

At least 318 people died from the disease in September alone, as

rabies ranked ahead of Aids and Hepatitis B as the leading infectious

disease in the nation, it added.

 

In an effort to contain the disease, and as part of the national

campaign, Beijing recently began a two-month project to inoculate up

to a million dogs in the city, where only 550,000 canines are

currently registered.

 

Rising living standards in China led to a boom in dog ownership, with

most dogs left unregistered and not inoculated due to high

registration fees and costly rabies shots, the report said.

 

In the southern city of Guangzhou, only 1,000 of the city's 50,000

dogs were registered, the paper said.

 

Meanwhile, more than 52,000 cases of dogs biting people were reported

in Shanghai in the first seven months of the year.

 

And in Beijing, 70,000 residents reported being bitten by dogs in the

first six months of the year, the paper said.

 

Earlier news of plans by authorities in the eastern province of

Shandong to kill up to half a million dogs, following the death of 16

people from rabies in the first eight months of the year, made

headlines worldwide.

 

One county in southwest Yunnan province also in August ordered more

than 50,000 dogs killed after rabies led to the deaths of three

people.