KARACHI: City govt hospitals directed to record, notify rabies cases
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, June 10: Rabies — a disease having a fatality rate of 100 per cent — is totally preventable. Yet many Karachiites die every year of the disease.
So said speakers at a seminar on ‘Awareness About and Prevention of Rabies’, organized jointly by the Infectious Diseases Society of Pakistan and the health department of the city government on Tuesday. The seminar was presided over by City Nazim Naimatullah Khan.
Speaking on the occasion, the Nazim announced that from now rabies be considered a disease that must be notified, at least in the hospitals and clinics run by the city government.
Mr Khan directed the Infectious Diseases Society of Pakistan to nominate three people who could sit down with the officials of the city government to formulate a plan of action to get rid of the menace and also to create awareness of rabies.
“Once the committee is formed, we will give the members about 10 days to chalk out a programme. Then we will proceed with our course of action.”
He said many philanthropists of Karachi could be approached to seek help in this regard. “For instance, to create awareness if we decide to run some messages on the television channels, we can ask their administrations to give us free time-slots,” he said.
“But if the channels decide to be too commercial with us, we can even buy the time-slots needed.” The Nazim lauded the efforts of the Sindh Rabies Forum.
He agreed with the contention of the majority of the doctors present that pye dogs should be eliminated. The revival of the programme under which the dogs were physically removed from the localities and later eliminated was possible.
“To restart this kind of programme, which was even undertaken in the pre-partition days, we only require a one-time investment in capital because special vehicles will have to be provided to the 18 towns of Karachi. The people needed to run the programme can easily be provided.”
He announced that the city government would try to get special allocations under the coming budget for rabies.
According to the video footage screened on the occasion, more than 60,000 cases of rabies were reported from around the world each year. The countries which had the dubious distinction of leading the other countries in this regard were: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar. About 35,000 cases were reported from South Asia alone.
Dr Naseem Salahuddin, the president of the Infectious Diseases Society of Pakistan, said in the last five years she had come across 10 people who suffered from rabies. The ages of the unfortunate people ranged from six to 65 years.
The people suffering from rabies could swallow neither water nor food, she said. They exhibited symptoms like hyper-salivation and hyper-ventilation.
Dr Naseem said up to 150,000 dog-bite cases were reported every year. And between 2,000 to 5,000 Pakistanis died of rabies every year, she claimed, adding that the figures cited by her were estimates because reliable data were simply not available. She demanded of the city government to make rabies a disease that must be notified just as polio was.
Dr Bazmi Inam, who conducted the proceedings of the seminar, told the district health officials and doctors taking part in the seminar that some 2.5 million dogs made their presence felt in Karachi alone. Some of the participants were of the opinion that Dr Inam’s estimate was a very low.
Among the millions of dogs there may be hundreds, even thousands, that suffer from rabies, said Dr Inam. If these rabid dogs bite a man or woman, the disease is transmitted to him or her.
The person who is infected with the disease dies a very painful death, said Dr Inam. But since the ailment is totally preventable awareness should be created for its prevention.
He invited all those present to join hands with the Sindh Rabies Forum, which was formed about five years ago, to help eradicate the disease from Karachi.
Dr Ali Nawaz Shaikh, the EDO of Karachi, said that every town in Karachi needed between 4,000 and 5,000 poisonous capsules per year that were used in efforts to eliminate pye dogs. He said this year about 8,500 capsules had been provided to the towns.
The EDO of Karachi said the town administrations should use their own resources to buy the poisonous capsules needed to eliminate pye dogs. He acknowledged that a huge gap existed between the number of capsules needed and actual number provided.
Later, a question-answer session was held in which, besides the district and town officials, television artist Marina Khan took part. She said several showbiz personalities might volunteer to either produce or appear in skits and spots containing messages about various diseases, including rabies.
