LARKANA: More than 70 per cent of dog bite victims who report at the anti-rabies vaccination centre in Chandka Medical College Hospital are children and the rest belong to different age groups.
Dr Vikesh, in-charge of the centre, told Dawn on Thursday that it was to their great relief that they were regularly receiving required amount of vaccine vials which were jointly provided by the CMCH, PPHI and Integrated Health Services (IHS).
According to breakup of their contribution, CMCH, PPHI and IHS made available 600, 300 and 150 ARV vials, respectively, to this centre every month which was enough to meet the demand, he said.
Initially, he said, the centre was set up at Commissioner’s Secretariat to enable the administration to centrally monitor the situation. But later, it was relocated to the main casualty department at CMCH to make it easily accessible to victims pouring in from entire district and peripheral areas.
Now the CMCH, PPHI and IHS were permanently contributing towards running this important centre for treating dog bite cases. This centre provided ARV doses to around 5,000 dog bite cases hailing from different sub-divisional headquarters of Larkana district and other adjacent areas during 2020, said Dr Vikesh.
He said that it transpired that in 40 per cent cases the attacking dogs were not stray ones but were pet dogs. Sources in the centre did not agree with the figure given by the doctor.
The victims’ families had now learnt to rush their loved ones to the ARV centre after they were bitten by dogs, which was a good omen as it helped avoid complications later, he said.
He said that cases of dog bite showed upward trend during breeding season, from January to March, and again from May to the end of July. “We receive around 30 cases per day during the breeding season while in non-breeding season 20 cases are reported at this centre in a day,” said the doctor.
“Normally, we administer four doses but in severe cases five doses are given. The centre receives two to four severe cases in a week,” he said.
The government had launched culling and sterilisation campaign in the province but animal lovers raised serious objections to it. The animal culling was against WHO protocols, said the doctor, adding the option of castration should be used.
Published in Dawn, May 7th, 2021