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Rabies Continuing to Spread in Bali
Denpasar - The Health Office of Bali Province had released a statement saying that rabies in Bali is continuing to spread uncontrollably. Four districts/municipalities in Bali have been declared as high risk areas for rabies and needs serious attention, starting from rabies vaccination in dogs and elimination of wild dogs. The four districts/municipalities are Badung district, Denpasar municipality, Gianyar district, and Tabanan district.
Head of the Bali Province Health Office, I Nyoman Sutedja in Denpasar on Monday (14/9) said rabies spread from Badung has been predicted to happen. But, they did not expect it to spread out so rapidly and cause more human deaths, especially in Tabanan.
“We have prepared around 3,850 anti-rabies vaccines for Tabanan. We predict that dog mobility will increase in Bali, since the public is generally fond of dogs. We have noted that dog owners and even dog bite victims have low awareness on the dangers of rabies,” said Sutedja.
Sutedja advices the public through health offices in all districts/municipalities to vaccinate their dogs and go to a doctor if they are bitten by a dog. Records show there were 14,700 cases of dog bites and only 5,800 doses of anti-rabies vaccines have been used.
Since early this year until yesterday, 12 people had died due to dog bites, 3 of the cases were in Tabanan. The provincial government of Bali had spent around 5 billion rupiahs for rabies control.
Unlikely finished by 2010
Secretary of the Rabies Management Team of Sanglah General Hospital, dr. Ken Wirasandhi confirmed the rabies outbreak, especially in Tabanan (before this Tabanan was not stated as a high risk area). “It had spread faster that predicted,” he said.
He is pessimistic that Bali would be free from rabies by 2010. The reason is because public awareness on rabies is still very low. KR (50), citizen of Kediri, Tabanan, had died in Sanglah on September 13, 2009.
According to dr. Ken, KR had clinical symptoms of rabies and was bitten by his dog two months ago. KR was late to seek treatment because his family thought Tabanan was not a high risk area for rabies and thus did not bring KR to be vaccinated. Even though KR had shown clinical signs of rabies but dr. Ken is still waiting for laboratory confirmation.
Early last year, mass vaccination in Badung had covered 19,000 animal hosts of rabies, mainly dogs. In Denpasar city, vaccination was conducted on 15,000 animals (in total 34,000 animals). The population of rabies animal hosts in Badung and Denpasar is estimated to be around 72,000 animals. Wild dog elimination had reached 1,051 dogs. (AYS)
Source : Kompas