Anti-rabies programme eludes 65 dists

Himalayan News Service

KATHMANDU: Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) is going to conduct awareness programmes on rabies in only 10 districts this year.

Lat Narayan Chaudhary, assistant zoonatic at Epidemiology and Disease Control Division (EDCD) under MoHP, said they have allocated Rs 50,000 per district to organise various programmes on the occasion of the third World Rabies Day.

He said the disease could be controlled only through the joint effort of all the stakeholders. EDCD provided post exposure treatment to about 45,000 patients after World Health Organization (WHO) phased out BPL anti-rabies vaccine in 2006.

There are an estimated 100 rabies deaths in Nepal every year. Thirty-three cases were recorded last year, with Morang topping the list.

The awareness programmes

to be conducted this year are

essay writing competition, interaction programmes and administering anti-rabies vaccine to dogs.

The selected districts are

Jhapa, Morang, Sunsari, Saptari, Dhanusa, Sarlahi, Bara, Parsa, Rupandehi and Banke.

Nepal Veterinary Association, under Department of Livestock Services,

is holding a weeklong awareness

programme on the disease from September 20 and 28. The Day will be marked with the slogan ‘Working together to make rabies the history’ on September 28.

According to a WHO report, one person dies of rabies in the world every 10 minutes.