BACOLOD City – The City of Victorias in Negros Occidental will host the first remote rabies laboratory in Negros Island to help eradicate the viral disease.
The facility, seen to operate in August in the city’s veterinary hospital, is under the Japan International Cooperation Agency’s (JICA) Japan and Philippines One Health Rabies (JAPOHR) project. It will use the Japanese-developed lateral flow device (LFD) or immunochromatographic test (ICT) kits for early detection of rabies.
In Negros Occidental, it takes long to detect rabies in dogs that have bitten humans since samples are still brought to the regional laboratory in Iloilo City for confirmatory testing. This results in a delayed reaction time.
“Almost 98 percent of rabies cases in humans are from dogs. With the remote rabies laboratory in Victorias, we will know in 15 minutes if a dog has rabies or not. Then we can immediately react and inform the owner. We can vaccinate the other dogs and impound stray dogs,” Dr. John Michael Cabuguason, city veterinarian, told the Philippine News Agency.
Cabuguason also said Victorias is receiving support through the provision of rabies test kits and technical training, while the city government is providing the site for the testing laboratory.
Last week, Cabuguason received an initial supply of LFD kits from Dr. Nobuo Saito of the JICA JAPOHR.
The remote rabies laboratory will also cater to neighboring localities.
“Once we open the remote rabies laboratory, we will promote it in the district so other local government units can also avail of the facility, especially the people in the rural areas,” he added.
While rabies is “100 percent fatal,” it is also “99 percent preventable,” and a fast diagnosis is important to start early treatment and other responses.
The ICT kits, which can diagnose rabies effectively in a maximum of 30 minutes compared to the usual two to three hours, have been developed with Japan’s Oita University and Japanese pharmaceutical firm ADTEC. (PNA)
