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Dog Bite Cases in Bali Doubles
Denpasar - Despite rabies mitigation measures implemented by the government in Bali, it seems that rabies freedom in 2012 is still far away. Daily dog bite count in Bali has almost doubled in figure. Each month, up to 2.7 billion rupiahs is spent on post-exposure rabies treatment.
Head of the Health Service Office of Bali, dr. Nyoman Sutedja, said that based on data from hospitals, on average there are 165 people bitten by dogs every day. “It has increased drastically. In 2009 on average there were only 85 bite cases a day. Now it has reached 165 bite cases per day,” said Sutedja.
Sutedja said daily report of cases started to increase since January 2010. With an average of 85 cases per day, in 2009 there have been a total of 24,000 cases. But this year, in 2010 alone until June there has been 30,450 cases of dog bites. “Reports until June 2010 have already exceeded the total count of cases in 2009. For 2010 alone there have been 30,450 dog bite cases,” said Sutedja.
With this condition, the provincial government has prepared 8,000 doses of rabies vaccine for post-exposure treatment consisting of 2,000 from district/municipal government purchase, 3,000 from provincial government purchase, and another 3,000 from the central government. But with this condition, even that much is not enough. “There have been times when Bali ran out of rabies vaccines for post-exposure treatment,” said Sutedja.
In total 74 people in Bali with a dog bite history had died since rabies outbreak was declared last year. From 74 cases, rabies was confirmed in 35 victims through testing of cerebrospinal fluid. “Not all victims could be laboratory tested, because some were already buried before samples were taken. But, based on dog bite history, there are 74 victims,” he said.
With the current condition, Bali Regional House Member from Commission IV, Ketut Mandia, asks more serious actions from the Livestock Service Office of Bali. Rabies is handled by two government offices, the Livestock Service Office for rabies in dogs or animal hosts and the Health Service Office for rabies in humans. Mandia said the increase of daily dog bites to 165 cases per day is an indication of unsuccessful mitigation measures.
When confirmed, Head of the Livestock Service Office of Bali, Nyoman Sumantra, said there have been problems in conducting rabies vaccination. “Often people are not at home when we try to do the vaccination program. Please contact us to vaccinate the dogs,” said Sumantra. (art)
Source: Radar Bali [edited]