Srinagar greatly affected by dog menace, hospitals lack anti-rabies vaccine

SHAKEELA ANDRABI

SRINAGAR: On World Rabies day, experts expressed concern over increase in dog menace, as Srinagar, with highest population of stray dogs, has witnessed a large number of dog-bite cases. Almost 3,300 bite cases, mostly of dog bites, were reported to at Anti-Rabies Clinic at Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) hospital since April this year. The presence of dogs on every nook and corner has led to man-dog confrontation due to which number of dog-bite cases has increased.
An official from ARC SMHS said that most of the dog bite cases were from Srinagar. Giving yearly data of bite cases, he said that from April 1 2015 to March 2016, 7061 bite cases were reported followed by 5,832 cases from April 2016 to March 2017, 6,802 cases from April 2017 to March 2018, 6,397 cases from April 2018 to March 2019, 6139 cases from April 2019 to March 2020, 4,808 from April 2020 to March 2021, 5,469 from April 2021 to March 2022 and 3,300 from April 2022 onwards. As per data, between April 2019 and February 2020, 6,319 animal bite cases were registered at clinic, out of which 3,975 were only from Srinagar city.
In Kashmir, dog bite is emerging as a major problem as a number of bite victims suffer from rabies, which is an invariably fatal viral disease resulting in approximately 59,000 human deaths per year globally, with 95 per cent of cases occurring in Africa and Asia. The only way to prevent a rabies death is vaccination of victim, but it is shocking, that government hospitals have completely run out of anti-rabies vaccines, forcing patients to buy the same from outside at high rates. The UT has 3,300 government health institutions in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, which are facing shortage of vaccine.