THE Baguio City Health Department has yet to declare the city rabies-free despite having had zero cases in recent years.
Donnabel Tubera, City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit head, confirmed that the city has not recorded any rabies cases based on their findings.
“We have not registered any rabies infections on persons for the last years but what we have documented are animal rabies, meaning, if we still have animal rabies in Baguio City, we cannot declare our city to be rabies-free,” Tubera said.
Rabies is a viral zoonotic neuroinvasive disease which causes inflammation in the brain and is usually fatal. Rabies, caused by the rabies virus, primarily infects mammals.
It has been found that birds can be infected, as well as cell cultures from birds, reptiles and insects.
Animals with rabies suffer deterioration of the brain and tend to behave bizarrely and often aggressively, increasing the chances that they will bite another animal or a person and transmit the disease.
“What is needed is both humans and animals should not be positive for rabies. We documented a dead dog wherein we brought the dead dog to the Department of Agriculture which was identified to be positive for rabies which indicates our city still have a case of rabies in animals but not in humans,” Tubera added.
Most cases of humans contracting the disease from infected animals are in developing nations. In 2010, an estimated 26,000 people died from rabies, down from 54,000 in 1990.
The City Health Services Office under Dr. Vanessa Fagcangan, head of non-communicable disease unit, recorded 4,691 cases of animal bites, mostly from dogs from January to May of 2018.
In 2017, the CHSO recorded 6,953 animal bites, 5,894 of which were dog bites, 1,021 were cat bites, and 28 caused by other animals.
Fagcangan encouraged residents to seek vaccination for their dogs from the city veterinarian’s office to help sustain a zero rabies status of the city.