KARACHI: An official of the rabies control programme Sindh (RCPS) on Thursday informed the Sindh High Court that over 20,000 cases of mass dog vaccination (MDV) and around 9,900 cases of animal birth control (ABC) had been carried out since January 2022.

The project director of RCPS filed a compliance report in the light of last court order and also submitted that 1,824 cases of ABC and 2,057 cases of MDV have been processed from January to Aug 21, this year.

It is further submitted in the report that the project was in full swing despite the establishment of only four centres and availability of meagre financial resources.

Rabies control centres are operational in four districts of Karachi including Central, South, East and West while work on fifth centre in Keamari will be completed by next month.

The report also maintained that dedicated helpline (1093) was completely activated and complaints about stray dogs were being received.

It reiterated that the scope of the project was to assist local councils to address of the issue of dog bites as under the law, it was the responsibility of such councils to take measures to provide protection to people against stray animals.

The two-judge bench headed by Justice Yousuf Ali Sayeed was hearing a set of identical petitions filed in 2019-20 about rise in dog-bite incidents in the province and shortage of anti-rabies vaccines at government-run hospitals while since then the SHC had passed several orders on the subject matter.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2024