Rawalpindi:Well over 1,000 dog-bite victims have been reported from Rawalpindi district in the last one month, in June at different healthcare facilities while the number of unreported cases from this region of the country cannot be ascertained.
Data collected by ‘The News’ on Tuesday reveals that the number of dog-bite cases is continuously on the rise mainly because it is observed that in extreme hot and humid weather conditions, the stray dogs get rabid more often. Every year, from May to September, a greater number of dog-bite cases are reported from almost all across the country as compared to winter months. According to details, the three allied hospitals in town including Holy Family Hospital (HFH), Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH) and District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital received well over 950 cases of dog-bite in June. The allied hospitals administered anti-rabies vaccine to almost all the patients reported after dog bites, however none of the patients was given anti-rabies serum, rabies immune globulin (RIG).
According to details, as many as 355 victims of dog bites reported at the accident and emergency department of BBH and 255 victims reached the emergency department at HFH in June. The DHQ Hospital received over 350 cases of dog-bite in the last month. Majority of the dog bite victims reached the allied hospitals from the peripheries of the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. It is important that in Pakistan, dog bite is the major cause behind almost all cases of rabies that is 100 per cent fatal for both animals and humans after developing symptoms. It is believed that the annual number of dog bites in Pakistan is 100,000 to 150,000.
Rabies is one of the oldest and the deadliest diseases known to mankind. It is said to be the mother of all infectious diseases and it is believed that nothing can be more painful and horrific than rabies. Known as the poor man’s disease, rabies continues to haunt population across Pakistan by claiming an estimated 2,000 to 5,000 lives annually according to data prepared on the basis of reported cases only.
Rabies is preventable through immunisation but in the acute stage of the disease, signs of hyperactivity (furious rabies) or paralysis (dumb rabies) predominate. After developing symptoms, the patient develops complete paralysis followed by coma and deaths in all cases within 2-6 days due to respiratory failure. After exposure to the disease, the victim’s survival is almost impossible however, still the management of dog-bite victims, the suspected rabies patients, has never been given due attention in most parts of the country and even in bigger cities.
The three teaching hospitals in town have sufficient quantity of anti-rabies vaccine. The HFH has 123 vials of anti-rabies vaccine, the BBH has 1,359 vials of ARV and the DHQ Hospital has 6,140 ARV vials in stock, said Principal Rawalpindi Medical College and In-charge Allied Hospitals Professor Dr. Jahangir Sarwar Khan while talking to ‘The News’ on Tuesday.