HARIPUR: Dog bite cases have registered a significant increase in the city and its surrounding areas here, official sources say. However, according to residents the tehsil municipal administration is yet to swing into action to control stray dogs.

Talking to this correspondent, the people said that dog bite cases were being reported frequently from Haripur city, Darwesh, Kangra Colony, Khalabat Township, Sera-i-Saleh and Afghan camps and children and elderly people were the worst affected by the dog attacks.

A teenage girl died in Kahka village after she was attacked and seriously injured by a dog the other day.

Official sources at the Haripur Trauma Centre said that from January to August the emergency facility of the district headquarters hospital had received about 2,000 dog bite cases while the number of cases reported in the basic health units and other peripheral health facilitiesof the district were not yet known.

Official says govt hospitals have enough stocks of anti-rabies vaccine

The sources said that on average the Trauma Centre had been receiving over 200 dog bite cases a month. They said that all those dog bite patients brought to the government health facilities without wasting time had recovered after getting proper treatment.

When contacted, Trauma Centre’s deputy medical superintendentDr Tahir Iqbal confirmed that during the last eight months over 2,000 cases of dog bite were reported. He said the population of stray dogs had increased manifold in Haripur.

Answering a question, he said a victim needed to be administered the first dose of anti-rabiesvaccine (ARV) within 72 hours of dog bite and the second dose three days after it, while each of rest of three doses should be administered after every seven days.

He said the dog bite victims must approach the government facilities instead of quacks, as all the government hospitals had enough stocks of anti-rabies vaccine.

Waheed Khan, a resident of Khalabat Township, lamented that there used to be a “kuta mar mohim” (drive to cull stray dogs) at the municipal administration level in the past, but due lack of action stray dogs could now be seen roaming in every street of the city.

He said that in any case the TMA should make proper arrangements to protect children and elderly people from attacks by stray dogs.

When contacted, local government deputy director Hasnain Kazmi said that culling or catching stray dogs was the domain of TMA. Tehsil municipal officer, Haripur, could not be approached for comments as he was out of office.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2022