(IN) Rabies, ABC etc in Tamil Nadu

[Guest guest]

Yesterday, Monday April 20, 2009, the first State Level Co-ordination

Committee Exclusively for the Control & Prevention of Rabies was held in

Chennai. The Committee was formed under Government Order (MS) No. 10

dated 06.01.2009 of the Health & Family Welfare (P1) Department

following a meeting held under the Chairmanship of the Chief Secretary

of Tamil Nadu on 20.11.2008.

 

Yesterday's meeting was held with the Director of Municipal

Administration, Dr. P. Senthil Kumar, IAS, as Chairman and was attended

by thes of Public Health and Preventive Medicine; Town Panchayats;

Rural Development & Local Administration; Medical Education; Medical &

Rural Health Services; Animal Husbandry; and Secretary of the Animal

Welfare Board and the undersigned.

 

Several most interesting facts emerged during the meeting:

 

1) Tamil Nadu has become the first State in India which has asked

all local bodies to set up ABC/AR programmes.

2) All Government Hospitals in the State now administer the

anti-rabies vaccine by the intra dermal route, saving over 80% in

vaccine costs.

3) Within a few months, all Public Health Centres (PHC) will also

follow suit.

4) The Department of Municipal Administration made a detailed

presentation on all the steps taken by it to ensure proper

implementation of the ABC programme.

5) Most importantly, there has been a steady and steep decline in

rabies cases over the last few years in TN as can be seen from the

figues below:

 

Year No. of rabies deaths

as reported by all

PHCs in TN

 

2004 39

2005 43

2006 51

2007 8

2008 7

2009 0 (till March 31, 2009)

 

 

The above does not contain any information regarding rabies in urban

areas.

 

With proper awareness and an aggressive ABC/AR programme, Tamil Nadu

will probably be the first State to become rabies free.

 

(While the Andaman & Nicobar Islands have never reported any cases of

rabies, the unrestricted and unorganised import of unvaccinated dogs

from the mainland is a time bomb likely to explode at any moment as

happened in Bali recently. Nothing is being done in spite of warnings).

 

It may be mentioned here that when the undersigned was in the CPCSEA,

one of the major thrust areas was the intra dermal vaccination for

rabies and we are delighted that it has been implemented, even though it

has taken four years after Mr. Syed Munir Hoda as Secretary for Health

and Family Welfare stopped the use of the outmoded and dangerous neural

tissue vaccine and replaced it with tissue culture vaccine.

 

If all States in India followed Tamil Nadu's lead, human deaths from

rabies could plummet and we would well and truly be on our way to a

rabies-free country.

 

Dr. S. Chinny Krishna

Chairman

Blue Cross of India

www.bluecrossofindia.org <http://www.bluecrossofindia.org/>