RAHIM YAR KHAN: An eight-year-old boy who was brought with dog bite injuries to the Shaikh Zayed Medical College Hospital (SZMCH) here a week ago, died of rabies on Tuesday.

The victim, Hassan was shifted to the SZMCH after a cluster of dogs attacked him near his residence in Sanjarpur town on the National Highway, some 50kms from here.

Doctors say the boy’s life could have been saved if the local rural health centre (RHC) had rabies vaccine and other facilities.

Hassan was not the only victim of dog bite, who lost his life because of shortage of rabies vaccine at public sector health facilities, especially those in the rural areas of the district, where dog bite cases are common.

According to the data collected from the SZMCH on Dec 15, a total of 4,068 dog bite cases had been reported since January this year in the district.

As per the hospital record, in January 465 cases were reported, in February 538, March 513, April 298, May 282, June 309, July 293, August 353, September 314, October 311, November 241 and in the first half of December the number of such cases was 151.

District Health Authority Chief Executive Officer Dr Sakhawat Randhawa told Dawn that a probe had been ordered into Hassan’s death and Sadiqabad Deputy District Health Officer Dr Ibrar Cheema will investigate the matter.

About such a large number of dog bite cases in the district, he said that after the 2013 Local Government Act, now it was the responsibility of local bodies institutions to monitor the situation and the canine population.

He said in the past, Strychnine, a poison imported from India had been used to kill stray dogs. However, after import restrictions were imposed on Indian drugs, the poison was being imported from some European countries at four times the price.

Besides, he said, European Union countries and animal rights activists also focus on animal rights and were against dog killing through poison.

He stressed the need for a comprehensive policy on controlling the population of stray dogs in the country to check rising incidents of dog bite.

About the shortage of rabies vaccine, Mr Randhawa claimed that each RHC and tehsil headquarters hospital in the district had been provided 10 and 20 viols of the vaccine, respectively, for dog bite victims. He added that it would be probed why the Sanjanpur RHC was short of rabies vaccine.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2020