KARACHI, Jan 25: Stray dogs in Karachi continue to posing threat to the lives of citizens.

During the last two months, twelve persons, including eight children, have fallen prey to them. An increasing number of dog-bite cases are being reported at public and private hospitals .

Talking to PPI, Dr Afaq Ahmad, Assistant Director National Institute of Child Health (NICH), Karachi, informed that till Jan 25 the NICH had registered 150 children who had fallen victim to the menace of dog bite.

Dr Afaq said it seemed that the Anti-Rabies Vaccine (ARV) had failed to prevent rabies, or the vaccine itself might cause rabies.

Doctors have been repeatedly reminding that Human Cell Vaccine (HDCV) should be used instead of ARV, but owing to its high cost it is beyond the financial capacity of hospitals to provide this vaccine to dog-bite victims.

“The only option available is that either the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, shoudl start providing this vaccine instead of ARV, or philanthropists should come forward to prevent unnecessary deaths,” Dr Afaq said.

He said that in the last two months four adults and three children had been admitted to the Civil Hospital and five children had been admitted to the NICH with diagnosis of rabies.

“Since both the hospitals could not provide specialized care to these victims, they were left helpless and must have died because once rabies develops there is almost 95% per cent chances of death,” he said.

He said during the last two months three major incidents of dog bite were reported to major city hospitals and the total number of the victims of those incidents was around 50 people.

“Out of them only 12 reported to the hospitals and almost an equal number must also have developed rabies but they did not report and this makes the picture more disastrous,”he said.

He claimed that these deaths were preventable by means of provision of the human cell vaccine and by campaigns to kill unregistered and wild dogs.

“The apathy and inaction displayed by the authorities concerned to tackle the problem generates fear and apprehension among citizens,” the doctor said.—PPI