KARACHI: An increasing number of dog-bite cases are being reported at city’s public sector hospitals, which are currently facing an acute shortage of rabies immunoglobulin (RIG), a life-saving serum essential for all serious animal exposures, it emerged on Wednesday.

Speaking to Dawn, doctors at the Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK) shared that while the facility routinely received a considerable number of dog-bite patients on a daily basis, their number had increased dramatically over the past 10 days.

“We have treated more than 500 cases of dog bite over the past three days. This number doesn’t include those patients who have reported for a follow-up visit during these days,” said CHK medical superintendent Dr S.M. Khalid Bukhari.

Around 900 cases of dog bite were reported every month at the hospital, seeing around 1,900 follow-up visits by patients, he added.

CHK doctors treat over 500 dog-bite victims in three days; most cases are from Lyari, Baldia Town, Golimar, Orangi and Gadap

The hospital had a separate rabies prevention clinic operating for over 15 years, he added.

According to the doctors, while the patients are coming from all over Karachi, a large number of them are reporting from Golimar, Lyari, Baldia, Orangi Town and Gadap Town.

“Also, there have been cases in which a single dog had hurt several individuals, including children,” CHK’s additional medical superintendent Dr Liaquat Ali Halo said, adding that quite a few cases were referrals from a major tertiary care hospital of the city.

“The patients were referred to us for administration of RIG after being given the vaccine for rabies,” he said, adding that the RIG injection was needed for all serious animal exposures as it prevented infection from rabies, a hundred per cent fatal disease.

Sources said that treatment for dog bite in the public sector was available at only CHK and the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC). The two hospitals were currently facing an acute shortage of RIG, a costly medication.

They said that supplies of RIG from the health department had almost stopped, forcing hospitals to arrange the serum from their own budget.

City’s situation worsening

When contacted, JPMC’s deputy director Dr Nousheen Rauf admitted that the hospital had been facing problems in arranging RIG for the past few days.

“We haven’t refused the treatment to anyone but we have been facing issues in arranging RIG,” she said, explaining that the hospital received limited supplies of RIG and often it was arranged from the hospital’s budget.

A total of 150-200 patients of dog-bite daily reported at JPMC, which included 40 new cases, she said.

Sources at CHK said that RIG was only administered during the morning hours at the hospital’s rabies’ prevention clinic.

“Patients with serious wounds are given the vaccine and asked to come in the morning for RIG. The medication is kept in cold storage at the clinic which closes in the afternoon,” said a doctor.

Over 13,000 cases reported this year

Meanwhile, experts described the city’s situation vis-à-vis dog bites as worrisome in the absence of any meaningful, humane government initiative to address the problem.

“We are seeing an increase in dog-bite cases every month. Last year, we recorded over 10,000 cases and this year, so far more than 13,000 cases have been reported,” said Aftab Gohar, the manager of The Indus Hospital’s Rabies Prevention and Training Centre.

He added that the facility provided free of cost treatment to patients.

He linked the ongoing spike in dog-bite cases to the animal’s breeding season. “Our clinical experience shows that there is a sharp increase in dog-bite cases twice a year; from March to April and October to November during which the canine population breeds.”

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2023