Bangladesh has reduced the death of rabies patients by 50% over the last few years.
According to Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH), the annual number of rabies related death was 167 in 2006 coming down to only 87 in 2013 and 72 till September of 2014. Senior health officials hoped to eliminate deaths caused by rabies by 2020 as per national strategic plan.
A national rabies prevention and control centre, established at IDH, receives about 350 to 450 patients with dog bites daily. Anti rabies vaccines are distributed free of charge from this centre. In addition, there are 65 rabies prevention and control centres at the district level.
However, there are many challenges facing the total eradication of rabies. Mass vaccination of 1.2 million dogs has remained as one of them.
Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has been conducting dog vaccination program since 2011. It has so far vaccinated only 100 thousand dogs within the municipality and city corporation area.
According to DGHS, another Tk.100 crore is needed to conduct mass dog vaccination program across the country.
Professor Dr Be-Nazir Ahmed, Director of Communicable Disease Control (CDC) unit of DGHS acknowledged the fund initiative. “We are in good position among other rabies infected countries because we have national strategic action plan, experience of patient’s management and more or less trained manpower.” said Be-Nazir.
“If we get the money, we would be able to implement the mass dog vaccination program by 2016 and eliminate rabies disease from the country before the deadline of 2020.” Dr. Be-Nazir hoped.
Lack of well trained doctor and nurses is another concern. It was learnt that there were only around 350 well trained doctor and nurses to manage around 200,000 patients.
Victims of dog bites also allege that they do not usually get Rabies Immune Globulin (RIG) vaccine from national rabies centre free of cost.
When asked, Dr. Be-Nazir said: “It is not untrue that there is a shortage of well trained doctors and nurses to assess patients properly and provide necessary treatment. Also, RIG treatment is a specialized and expensive one and we cannot offer it to all.”
According to health bulletin 2014 of health directorate, the annual number of dog bites in Bangladesh varies from 200,000 to 300,000 and 95% of rabies occurs due to dog bites. Other animals that occasionally transmit rabies are cat, fox, monkey, jackal and mongoose.
On this backdrop, World Rabies Day is being observed today with the theme “Together against Rabies”. Bangladesh has chalked out several programmes, including processions, discussions, and awareness raising events across the country to mark the day.
