EVEN as the Department of Agriculture (DA) and its partner agencies are intensifying their anti-rabies campaigns, the hope for a rabies-free region, and country by 2020, for that matter, is not yet that visible.
In a recent inter-agency regional rabies prevention and control program (RPCP) meeting involving main stakeholders and implementers of the anti-rabies program in the region, cases of rabies emerged in places where the virus was supposedly neutralized.
In isolated areas where the virus was practically unheard of, stories of rabid dog bites have been reaching government anti-rabies program staff at various levels. The rabies virus has been freely moving around the ruggedness of the Cordillera.
The members of the RPCP are: DA, Department of Health (DOH), Department of Interior and Local Government, Department of Education, Philippine National Police, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, local government units, and other non-government organizations.
As a backgrounder to our readers, the rabies virus continues to be a public health problem in the Philippines.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the country is one of the top 10 countries in the world with a rabies problem. On its website, it reported that the rabies is responsible for the deaths of 200 to 300 Filipinos per year.
The DOH reported that from 2010 to 2015, 1,463 deaths were recorded from human rabies and 180 deaths from human rabies were noted from January 1 to September 24, 2016.
For the same period, animal bite cases in the country have been increasing nationwide. At least 328,459 persons in 2011, and 266, 220 individuals in 2010 were bitten by animals.
Almost half of rabies exposures are among school children. Dogs remain the principal cause of animal bites and rabies cases.
In 2015, a total of 783,879 animal bites across the country were registered. This is 10 percent higher than in 2014 when the total number of animal bites was 683,802 cases.
Past forward to 2018 in the Cordillera during the RPCP meeting last May 2, 2018.
During the meeting, the RPCP consolidated their report showing 20 cases of positive canine rabies recorded throughout the region, as of May 31, 2018.
The alarming report is rather surprising in a region where canine rabid dogs are hardly seen or heard. Besides, the average total of reported positive cases of rabies in the region over the past decade is half of the total already recorded this year.
The government’s anti-rabies program is anchored on responsible pet ownership as provided for under Section 5 of Republic Act 9482.
The act calls on all dog owners to be educated about the law, and its salient provisions like having their dogs regularly vaccinated against rabies and maintain a registration card showing all vaccinations administered on their dogs.
Beside vaccination and in the light of the rabies problem and the provisions of RA 9482, dog owners must provide appropriate housing and lease their dogs. They must also and ensure that sanitation, clean environment; and sufficient food are provided to their pets at all times.
Most of these practices are hardly done by majority of dog-owners in the region; most dog- owners do not provide housing but allow their dogs to freely roam in the house, backyard, and neighborhood. In some municipalities in the hinterlands, like Paracelis, Mountain Province, a family owns an average of four free-roaming dogs.
For the first time, the program was able to determine the current dog population in the region now pegged at 214,587 with Benguet Province topping the list at 79,233, followed by Baguio City with a total dog population of 48, 382.
Next to Benguet and Baguio City is Abra Province with a total dog population of 23, 708; Kalinga, 19,648; Ifugao, 19,107; Mountain Province, 15, 418; and, Apayao with 12, 431.
The list is still being updated to get a full picture of the total dog population and how the resources of government can be fully and effectively employed to control the rabies problem.
Another positive development is that the increase in the number of reported cases is attributed to the improved monitoring, surveillance and services which enabled bite cases to seek treatment at established public Animal Bite Treatment Centers (ABTC). The folk treatment of rabies like the use of “tandok” is decreasing.
During the meeting, it was pleasant to hear provincial health representatives reporting an average of 1-2 ABTCs operating in the region’s six provinces.
According to Mr. Roy Fiaching, rabies coordinator for the DOH-Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), rabies is 100 percent fatal but it is also 100 percent preventable through intensified information education campaign (IEC) on rabies, vaccination, and promotion of responsible pet ownership.
This year, the government through the RPCP seeks to at least vaccinate 80 percent of the total dog population in the region. The program is appealing to all provincial and city veterinary offices to double their efforts in reaching out to the communities especially those in the far-flung areas which were yet to be visited for rabies vaccination activities.
At present, only 26 percent of the total population of dogs in the region have been vaccinated, reported Dr. Cecilia Capuyan of the DA-CAR.
Dr. Arlene Sagayo, DA regional rabies coordinator, said that the vaccination and IEC targets can only be made possible with the close coordination and cooperation among the concerned offices and stakeholders in the region.” I agree.