Five people have died in Beijing from rabies as of August 21
this year, while close to 70,000 people in the capital have
reported being bitten by dogs in the first half of the year,
according to local health authorities on Wednesday.
Only one of the five people who died in Beijing contracted
rabies in the city. The four others came down with the disease in
other places in the country and were brought to the capital for
treatment prior to their death. The man who contracted the fatal
disease in Beijing was not a permanent resident. He raised pigs and
is believed to have been infected by a dog that he had brought from
his hometown in the countryside, according to the Beijing Municipal
Health Bureau.
Everyone who reported being bitten by a dog in Beijing was
inoculated against rabies and none of them developed the disease,
according to the bureau.
The bureau says no permanent resident of Beijing has died from
rabies since the city issued regulations governing pet ownership in
1994.
While it appears Beijing has been able to control the disease
that causes an agonizing death, other parts of the country are
reporting serious increases of the disease.
The Ministry of Health's website shows that 2,660 people died
from rabies in 2004, while in 1996 there were only 159 reported
fatalities from the disease. The website also reports that in
2004rabies made up just over 35 percent of all deaths from its list
of37 infectious diseases.
In east China's Shandong Province reported 46 cases of rabies
by the end of July this year, more than double the rate over the
same period last year.
An outbreak of rabies killed 16 people in 14 townships of Jining
city of Shandong Province prior to August 3.
Wang Ya, a member of the Shandong Provincial People's Political
Consultative Conference says an explosion in the number of pet dogs
is a major cause for the increase in rabies cases, said Wang.
Experts say pet owners who abandon their dogs are mainly
responsible for the increasing rate the disease as stray dogs that
have not been vaccinated are most likely to contract rabies.
China has some 150 million pet dogs, according to expert
estimates.
(Xinhua News Agency August 23, 2006)