Illustrative image (Source: VNA) Thai
Nguyen (VNA) – A to launch a on the
control and elimination of in 2017-2021 took place in the northern
province of Thai Nguyen on April 18.
The
programme aims for the rate of vaccinated pet dogs in communes, wards and towns
to exceed 85 percent while more than 70 percent of provinces will record no
incidents of rabies in for two consecutive years.
By 2021,
over 95 percent of communes, wards and towns are expected to provide lists of
households with pet dogs, while the number of fatalities due to rabies is hoped
to be reduced by 60 percent.
Pham Van
Dong, Director of the Animal Health Department under the Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development, said rabies claims more than 70 lives on
average each year and nearly 400,000 people have to seek medical help after
being bitten by dogs, costing the country about 800 billion VND (34.78 million
USD) yearly.
Participants
discussed building rabies-free zones, coordinating to control rabies, improving
institutional capacity and inter-sectoral communications about the disease.
The country
currently has more than 7.7 million pet dogs, but only 2.9 million of them are
vaccinated.
Last year, more
than 411,000 people were bitten by dogs and 91 were killed by rabies in 28
cities and provinces nationwide. In the first quarter this year, 12 fatalities
due to rabies were recorded.
Part of the
reason for the problem is poor management of pet dogs in many localities,
especially in rural and mountainous areas, and a lack of canine
vaccination.-VNA
Source: VietnamPlus
