India accounts for highest number of rabies deaths among humans

Home to more than 25 million stray dogs, India accounted for an average of 20,000 deaths among humans annually on account of rabies.

This was revealed by World Health Organization’s (WHO) Chief of Rabies Unit F X Meslin at a conference of Rabies in Asia held in Bangalore. “India ranks number one in the world for rabies deaths among humans by accounting for 20,000 deaths annually”, he said.

Children are estimated to constitute 35 to 40 per cent of the one million people in India, who undergo anti-rabies vaccination. Dogs are responsible for 96 per cent of the animal bite cases seeking anti-rabies treatment.

These figures, which came out during the conference on Rabies in Asia, assume significance in the wake of the threat to human lives from stray dogs following the brutal mauling of a four-year-old child in Bangalore recently.

Experts attending the conference expressed concern over the failure of the Government to chart out a strategy to control the population of stray dogs. The distinct increase in human mortality to due to rabies in India has been attributed to increase in the size of dog population over the last few years.

“The implementation of Animal Birth Control and Anti-rabies programmes has been too piecemeal. There is neither a national rabies control programme nor a dog population management strategy” regretted Additional Director of National Institute of Communicable Diseases, New Delhi, R L Ichpujani, who attended the conference.

Director of National Institute for Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) D Nagaraja lamented the poor co-ordination between various agencies in the efforts to tackle rabies. The absence of co-ordination between the Federal and State Governments, besides the Municipal authorities and the community at large is regrettable, Nagaraja pointed out.

Meanwhile, complaints of dog bites continue to pour in from different parts of Karnataka. Three days after four-year-old Manjunath was mauled to death by a pack of ferocious dogs in Bangalore, a stray dog in Mysore near here bit four children, sending shock waves among the residents of the locality.

While three of four children were bitten on their hands and legs, one child was dragged for some distance by the stray dog before onlookers rescued him, police said. Soon after the incident on Saturday evening, a mob armed with lathis and sticks went after the dog, which had went on the biting spree.