More than 300 people died of rabies in south China's Guangdong Province last year, the highest
number in a decade, local authorities said yesterday.
"The death toll was 306 last year, up 24.9 percent from 2004,"
Huang Fei, deputy director of Guangdong Provincial Health
Department, told China Daily.
Departmental records showed that 330,000 people saw doctors for
rabies, 500,000 people took rabies vaccines, and at least 1.5
million people were bitten or scratched by dogs and cats in
Guangdong last year.
Most victims were from rural areas in western and eastern parts
of the province, Huang said.
Guangdong Department of Health has designated rabies as one of
the five epidemic diseases for priority control and prevention.
Huang said the government would strengthen their control force
in high-risk areas.
"Administration, immunization, and destruction of infected
animals will be further integrated," Huang said.
All dogs not immunized from rabies living within a 2.5-kilometre
radius of an epidemic area must be destroyed within one week, Huang
said.
"As living standards keep increasing, more people feed dogs, and
this increased contact means more chance of infection," Guo
Xiaofeng, a professor at South China Agriculture University (SCAU),
told China Daily.
The most direct way to control rabies is to give dogs regular
vaccinations, Guo said.
However, control efforts have met obstacles in rural areas.
Many owners do not want to inoculate their dogs, as they are
unaware of the importance. Furthermore, the large number of strays
makes vaccination an impossible task.
Because of this, Guo said government education efforts in rural
areas would be very important.
Zhu Xingquan, professor of parasitology at SCAU, said the
current dog registration fee was another problem.
"The current charge is far from the reach of most dog owners,"
he said.
At the annual meeting of the municipal committee of Guangzhou
earlier this year, he proposed a reduction in the dog license fee
from the current 10,000 yuan (US$1,250) to 1,000 yuan (US$125),
with the subsequent annual fees reduced from 6,000 yuan (US$740) to
500 yuan (US$62).
Given the huge amount of money most dog owners, especially those
in rural areas, choose to raise their dogs illegally.
This situation definitely raises the risk of getting rabies, Zhu
said.
Rabies cannot be cured in animals or people once the infection
has taken hold, but it can be prevented in some ways, according to
Luo Huiming, a chief doctor of the Centre for Disease Control and
Prevention of Guangdong.
"Dog feeders should have a veterinarian vaccinate their dogs
once a year, keep dogs on leashes when outdoors, and report any
animal they suspect of having rabies to the local public health
office."
Any animal bite that breaks the skin should be cleaned and
disinfected immediately, and reported immediately to the local
department of health, he added.
According to the Ministry of Health, 2,660 people died of rabies
in 2004 nationwide.
(China Daily June 8, 2006)