Antirabies drive gets P69M from DOH to inoculate dogs

AP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Department of Health (DOH) has augmented the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) budget for the purchase of antirabies vaccines, allocating P69.5 million to have eight to nine million dogs across the country vaccinated this year.

The DA has a P109.5-million allocation for its antirabies program, which aims to make the Philippines rabies-free by the end of the Aquino administration in 2016.

The DA has under it the Bureau of Animal Industry, which is mandated to look after the welfare of animals in the country.

In a press briefing on Monday, Health Secretary Enrique Ona said the department decided to fork over the P69.5 million to the DA to address the problem of rabies—a lethal but preventable disease that kills 300 to 600 Filipinos every year—by going to the source of the illness.

“Rabies is a lethal disease so almost all that have been infected with it die. What we are doing now is essentially prevention,” Ona told reporters on Monday.

“Instead of focusing on the patients infected with rabies, we are using another strategy. Why not attack the source of the rabies, which is the dogs,” he said.

Ona said the government would be saving a lot of money by vaccinating dogs rather than treating those who had been bitten by rabid dogs.

He noted that the DOH spends between P40,000 and P50,000 per patient with rabies, with an average of 250 to 300 Filipinos getting the viral disease annually.

Periodically deployed

According to Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, teams from the agency would be periodically deployed to certain areas to conduct free vaccinations of dogs.

“Prevention is better than cure,” said Alcala, adding that with the help of the DOH, the DA would be able to meet its deadline in eradicating rabies in the country.

Records showed that 15 provinces and municipalities had been declared rabies-free zones. In 2013, these were Guimaras, Olympia Island in Bais, Negros Oriental; Busuanga, Culion and Coron in Palawan, and Boracay in Aklan.

The other zones that had been confirmed to be rabies-free over the last six years were Siquijor, Batanes, Apo Island, Malapascua Island, Daan Bantayan, Camotes Island, Biliran, Limasawa, Marinduque and Camiguin.

Last year, 157 deaths due to rabies were recorded by the DOH National Epidemiology Center. Nine of these were reported in Metro Manila, according to the DOH.

The Calabarzon region accounted for most of the human rabies cases with 35, followed by Cagayan Valley with 22, Bicol with 21, Socksargen with 19 and Davao with 16.

“Let me underscore that vaccination coupled with responsible pet ownership can help us achieve our goal of a rabies-free Philippines by 2016,” said Ona.

He also warned the public against resorting to traditional healing methods such as “tandok” (inducing bleeding) and “mananambal” (Filipino magic and wizardy) when treating rabies, which he said were not safe remedies.

“All you need to do is wash the wound with soap and water for at least 10 minutes, put a clean gauze over it and go to any of the government’s 424 animal bite centers for proper management,” Ona said.