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Wednesday, April 26, 2017
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ILOILO – Western Visayas has two confirmed cases of human rabies as of April.
They came from Cauayan town in Negros Occidental, according to the Department of Health (DOH) Region 6.
DOH Region 6 continues to record data from Negros Occidental, which used to belong to Western Visayas but is now geographically under Negros Island Region.
It is validating three suspected human rabies cases.
Dr. Elvie Villalobos, head of the DOH Region 6’s infectious diseases cluster, expressed alarm over the increasing number of dog bites in the region.
Of the three suspected human rabies cases, two are from Capiz province and one is from Kabankalan City, also in Negros Occidental.
More than 85,000 animal bites were recorded in the region in 2016. In 2015 there were 65,000.
Nine died of rabies in 2016 — four from Negros Occidental, two each from Antique and Capiz, and one from Iloilo. Western Visayas ranked ninth nationwide in terms of mortality.
“This is alarming because we are aiming for zero death,” Villalobos said.
More than half of children below 15 years old are vulnerable to dog bites because they are the ones left at home during vacation. They also do not inform their parents when they are bitten by dogs, he noted.
Animal bite victims must seek medication from any of the 60 animal bite treatment centers in Western Visayas, including Negros Occidental, Villalobos stressed.
Pet owners should also have their dogs vaccinated. The government provides free antirabies vaccines, he noted.
Rabies may be eliminated in an area if more than 70 percent of the dog population is vaccinated, he said.
Most rabies cases are from geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas, where people often opt for the traditional tandok instead of taking the patient to a medical clinic, said Villalobos.
Tandok is a procedure supposedly to extract the rabies virus using a deer horn.
Meanwhile the DOH Region 6 official called on hospitals not to refuse patients showing rabies symptoms.
“Rabies is fatal and it cannot be treated. The mortality rate is 100 percent. No one can survive rabies,” he warned.
Aside from dogs, rabies may also be acquired from cats, pigs and monkeys. (PNA)
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