KARACHI: Health experts at a seminar marking World Rabies Day said on Saturday that up to 30,000 cases of dog bite were reported in Karachi alone every year and just 50 per cent of the victims receive post-exposure treatment.

“Semple (sheep-brain) vaccine is the only available vaccine at public health facilities and 40pc of victims die of rabies despite full course of Semple vaccine in Karachi,” said Prof Wasay Shakir of the Aga Khan University while speaking at the seminar organised by the Neurology Awareness and Research Foundation and the health committee of the Karachi Press Club at the latter’s premises.

He said rabies was a disease hard to notify as no records were available officially in the country.

It is a viral infection carried in the saliva of rabid dog and bats. It accesses human body after animal bite and its incubation period remains a few weeks.

The experts said the virus gained access to peripheral nerves; transported to brain via retrograde axonal transport and spread throughout brain via synaptic transmission.

Dr Seemin Jamali, deputy head of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), said rabies was rampant in the world as every 10 minutes a person got bitten and lost life because of it.

She said around 5,000 patients with rabies reported at the JPMC and during the past three months three victims died of it.

She said the JPMC was the only health facility in the country where rabies was being treated by applying global standards.

Prof Abdul Hakeem Jokhio asked the government to play an effective role to check the disease effectively.

Experts told the participants in the seminar that some nine million dog bite cases were recorded each year in Asia and seven million received post-exposure treatment.

Pakistan was among the countries with the highest incidence of dog bites along with India, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Thailand, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Projected rabies related deaths in Asia were about 100,000.

They said more human beings died of rabies than of polio, meningococcal meningitis, yellow fever, dengue, Japanese encephalitis, Ebola virus, anthrax, SARS and naegleria fowleri.

It recorded 100pc mortality in un-vaccinated people and caused one of the most feared and horrible deaths.

Up to 40pc of its victims were of age less than 15 years and male to female ratio was 3:4. Besides, 80pc of victims belonged to low socioeconomic class. In Thailand, almost 30pc children had a dog bite before age 15.

The experts recommended in the event of a dog bite the victim needed wound care and active immunisation. They asked for thorough washing of rabies-infected wounds with soap and water which could reduce rabies risk by 50pc.

They said Semple vaccine was being used only in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Nepal and was just available at public hospitals in Pakistan. It is prepared by the National Institute of Health although it was declared obsolete by the WHO in 1994 due to ineffectiveness. A study showed 40pc people died of rabies despite full course of vaccination.

KPC secretary Amir Latif also spoke and health committee head Hamidur Rehman moderated the proceedings.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2014