Rabies in Bhutan

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*Rabies: a growing public health concern*

 

 

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*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.

 

*A Thimphu street and its strays *

 

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*