BHUTAN ON RABIES

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Rabies: a growing public health concern

 

2 February, 2007 - In the past five years the government spent more

than Nu 5.878 million on Anti Rabies Vaccines according to health

ministry officials.

 

Some of the treatment costs could have been avoided because every dog

bite victim is not necessarily a victim of a rabid dog say health

officials.

 

But this has not been possible because of the difficulty in

identifying the dog responsible for the bite from the huge dog

population which numbers around 7,000 in the capital alone. Given the

high risk it poses, a victim of a canine bite is treated seriously

and given full treatment.

 

Controlling the bursting stray dog population has not been very

successful either despite the sporadic sterlisation campaigns.

 

In 2006 there were three deaths from rabies. A senior official of a

corporate organisation also fell victim to rabies more recently.

 

Rabies (Hydrophobia i.e. fear of water) is an acutely fatal infection

of animal populations conveyed to human through bites and licks on

abrasion say health officials. Humans are most frequently infected

from rabid dogs, cats and other animals such as wolfs, jackal,

mongoose and monkeys. The average incubation period of the infection

is said to be within 30-90 days.

 

" Rabies is the only communicable disease of man which carries a

mortality of 100 percent, " said Dr. Ugyen Dophu of the health

ministry. " Till date no treatment has succeeded in curing

hydrophobia. "

 

The incidence of the disease in animals is said to be of far greater

magnitude and at times even reaches epizootic proportions.

 

According to him the diagnosis of rabies in human is made by a

history of dog bite and the manifestation of typical signs and

symptoms. The `lyssa virus' which causes rabies, among other things,

attacks the nervous system and is later excreted in the saliva. Man

to man spread of the disease, although rare, is possible.

 

From the global point of view WHO estimates that 10 million people

are treated for exposure to rabies ever year. Some 40,000 to 70,000

people are estimated to die of the disease each year. In India rabies

is responsible for 20,000 deaths annually.

 

According to health officials in Bhutan rabies is endemic in the

southern dzongkhags of Chukha, Samtse, Sarbang, Samdrup Jongkhar and

some bordering towns and villages of Zhemgang.

 

The data recorded by ministry reveals that in 2006 Mongar,

Trashiyangtse and Trashigang reported 107 dog bite cases with three

cases of human deaths due to rabies in Trashigang and Chukha

dzongkhags. Of 600 dog bite cases in 2005 one died from the disease.

2004 had 1,400 dog bite cases, the highest recorded, followed by 940

cases in 2002.

 

Dr. Ugyen Dophu said that the control of rabies in the canine

population is fundamental to elimination of rabies. He said 96

percent of the mortality in the South East Asian region was due to

dog bites.

 

In November last year more than 600 of the estimated 1500 dogs in

Kanglung were sterilised and vaccinated after the area was declared

an infected area.

 

In Phuentsholing, including Pasakha, the dog population was estimated

at more than 1,000 of which more than 300 were vaccinated and

castrated during a campaign in March 2006.

 

The Thimphu City Corporation in collaboration with the National

Animal Hospital and Royal Society for Protection and Care of Animals

(RSPCA) carried out a campaign in December 2006 where about a 1,000

dogs were vaccinated and 760 sterilised.

 

The lack of a national programme and a coordinated national policy on

dog population, lack of national law and regulation on house pets,

weak inter sectoral collaboration between animal and health sectors,

porous border and the lack of cross border collaboration, strong

religious and cultural sentiments were some of the major factors that

hampered the control of the canine population said Dr. Ugyen Dophu.

 

By Younten Dorji