Join hands to eliminate rabies from the community

Results from efforts

Mr. Dang Van Minh - Head of the Provincial Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine excitedly said: "In the past time, the authorities at all levels in the province have really paid attention to rabies prevention work, especially the grassroots level, which used to be "left open" to the veterinary force, but now they have thoroughly grasped and directed departments and branches to coordinate and join hands to eliminate rabies from the community".

Rabies is gradually being pushed back, human deaths due torabiesThe number of deaths from rabies has decreased year by year and it is very encouraging that since the beginning of the year, there have been no deaths; the number of people who died from rabies in the period 2017 - 2021 is 33 people, a decrease of 14 cases compared to the period 2013 - 2016. People's awareness of dog management has also gradually changed, people have basically identified that dogs are a high risk of causing rabies in humans, thereby raising awareness in rabies prevention, vaccination, and dog management; people who are bitten by dogs should get vaccinated immediately, minimizing the use of traditional medicine to treat rabies.

Veterinary staff of Do Luong district vaccinate dogs of local people. Photo: Phu Huong

Still a potential risk of disease

According to statistics from the Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine of Nghe An province, there are currently 485,765 dogs, of which over 85% are raised in rural areas. In fact, dogs are common pets in households, especially in rural and mountainous areas; they are mainly raised on a small scale, mainly for the purpose of guarding the house, and have not yet been raised in a concentrated form but are often left free-range; raising dogs and cats as pets is gradually becoming popular in some localities such as Vinh city, Thai Hoa town, and Cua Lo town.

Dogs are ferocious animals, mostly raised free-range, so capturing, vaccinating, and monitoring them is difficult. Illustrative photo

Meanwhile, some people are not fully aware of the role and effects of vaccination, are still negligent, subjectively thinking that there is currently no rabies outbreak, and only vaccinate when there is an epidemic or only vaccinate dogs during hot weather, especially in mountainous districts and sparsely populated areas, so the rate of dog rabies vaccination is very low.

In reality, most of the cases of dogs with rabies have not been vaccinated or have been vaccinated but the immunity period has expired. In addition, violations such as not being vaccinated, not wearing a muzzle, etc. have only been reminded, and no strict penalties have been applied.

“With the actual farming conditions in the province, in the coming years, the potential risk and outbreak of disease will remain high because the rabies virus is still circulating and existing in the environment and livestock.”

Mr. Ngo Duc Quynh - Deputy Head of the Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine

Continue to implement many solutions

Determining vaccination as the top priority solution to create active immunity, limit disease outbreaks and spread, this work is always focused on by Nghe An. Every year, the whole province has two concentrated vaccination sessions, in addition to additional vaccinations for newly imported and newborn dogs. However, the vaccination results are very low, from 16-30%. In the solution to eliminate rabies, in the coming years, Nghe An will continue to make efforts to increase the rate of rabies vaccination. Accordingly, it is proposed that the Central Government support vaccines for communes in difficult mountainous areas, the Provincial People's Committee support vaccines for old epidemic areas, high-risk areas for rabies, densely populated areas, and tourist areas.

Vaccination is the top priority solution to create immunity. Illustration photo