BY EUGENE Y. ADIONG
BACOLOD City – Dog bite incidents this year in Negros Occidental rose by 42 percent or 1,555 cases, according to the Provincial Health Office (PHO).
Dr. Ernell Tumimbang, provincial health officer, said only 1,093 dog bite cases were recorded last year.
“Last year, we have no record of deaths caused by rabies but as of April this year, we already have two deaths,” he added,
Tumimbang urged Negrosanons to go see a doctor immediately after being bitten by a suspected rabid dog.
“The doctor will determine which area of your body you were bitten, how severe is the bite, and the category of the bite,” he said.
The doctor’s findings will also determine if only anti- rabies vaccine is needed or if anti-tetanus injection is also necessary, Tumimbang added.
The PHO has a supply of anti- rabies vaccines, he said.
But the provincial government cannot provide for all the rabies cases being reported, he stressed.
An anti- rabies injection costs P1,800 and a person bitten by a rabid dog needs four injections, Tumimbang said.
“The burden of paying for the cost of anti- rabies vaccine should be on the owner of the rabid dog,” he pointed out.
Records at the Provincial Veterinarian’s Office (PVO) showed 11 confirmed rabid dogs; four were in Bacolod City.
The PVO last month ordered a de-population of stray dogs to stop the spread of rabies.
Under the law, when the situation “endangers the life and limbs of the people, rabid dogs should be eliminated,” explained Provincial Veterinarian Renante Decena.
In April, the PVO declared a rabies outbreak in two towns and three cities in Negros Occidental.
They were Pulupundan and Binalbagan and the cities of Bacolod, Cadiz and San Carlos.
Decena appealed to dog owners to be responsible for their pets. They must have their dogs vaccinated and leash them all the time.
In Negros Occidental, only 24,000 of the 219,000 dog population were vaccinated.
Rabies remains a public health concern throughout the country, according to the Department of Health.
Rabies attacks the nervous system. Its victims exhibit irrational furies, fearfulness and foaming at the mouth. The difficulty that patients have in swallowing water or food led to the disease’s other common name: hydrophobia.
Since the virus moves through the body inside nerve tissue rather than the blood, the disease triggers no antibodies and can’t be detected during its incubation. Once it reaches the brain, death is virtually inevitable./PN
