Beijing to set up more outpatient clinics for rabies vaccination

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Beijing to set up more outpatient clinics for rabies vaccination

October 28, 2006

 

Beijing's health authorities are requiring districts and counties to set up more

outpatient clinics to provide rabies vaccination, and to raise public awareness

of rabies prevention among urban and rural residents.

 

The municipal health bureau also urged medical institutes to transfer suspected

cases of rabies to You'an Hospital or Ditan Hospital for diagnosis, treatment

and quarantine.

 

The Chinese capital also wants districts and counties to track animals that bite

people and ensure the animals are properly disposed of.

 

Beijing currently has 45 outpatient clinics providing inoculations against

rabies. They are required to be open 24 hours a day and make regular reports to

local centers for disease control and prevention.

 

Although no permanent resident of Beijing has contracted rabies, nine people who

contracted rabies in other parts of the country were brought to Beijing for

treatment in local hospitals before they died. One woman living in Beijing, who

was not a permanent resident here, contracted rabies from a dog she had brought

from outside the city.

 

The disease has killed more than 2,000 people in other parts of the country this

year.

 

Despite the local government's good record of controlling rabies, more than

110,000 Beijing residents have received rabies inoculations to prevent the onset

of the disease after they were bitten or scratched by a dog or cat, said the

bureau on Friday.

 

This year, Beijing has registered 550,000 dogs, 90,000 more than last year.

 

Rabies, often spread by dogs, attacks the nervous system and is fatal in humans

if not treated prior to the onset of symptoms.

 

Local authorities have begun a two-month campaign to remove stray dogs from the

capital's streets.

 

All dogs without city-issued licenses can be caught and handed to public

security offices for inoculation, according to a municipal meeting on dog

management on Thursday.

 

This year, the local police have rounded up 8,961 unlicensed dogs, of which 831

were strays.

 

Dog owners who do not register or vaccinate their pets can be fined up to 5,000

yuan (625 U.S. dollars), according to city regulations. The city police have

detained 16 dog owners for violating the regulations.

 

It costs 1,000 yuan (125 U.S. dollars) to register a dog in Beijing and annual

dog licence fees are 500 yuan.

 

China recorded 2,254 rabies cases in the first nine months of the year, a 30

percent increase from the same period last year.

 

In Shanghai, digital ID chips have been implanted in 65,000 dogs to improve

canine management and prevent the spread of rabies.

 

The chips contain the dog's ID number, inoculation record and owner's address.

 

Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality has reported 13 rabies cases this year,

more than the total number of cases in the past five years.

 

During the first nine months of the year, 72,140 people in Chongqing were

vaccinated against rabies, compared with 55,230 in 2003.

 

Source: Xinhua

http://english.people.com.cn/200610/28/eng20061028_315853.html