18 died of rabies in four months

CHENNAI: More than 2.77 lakh people across Tamil Nadu have been bitten by animals and 18 of them died of rabies this year, according to government data available from January to April. Official sources told City Express that a policy is being formulated in the state to contain death due to rabies¸ which is caused by a rhabdovirus often present in the saliva of a rabid animal. The sources said the data available is only from the government hospital, public health centers and directorate of medical education records. “The cases which are referred to private hospitals are not available with us,” a source said.Interestingly, a pilot study sponsored by the union government on the prevention and control of rabies has already begun in Madurai. The project is to test the efficacy of immunoglobulin, an anti-body, along with rabies vaccine, an antigen, and a report will be released during the 13th National Conference of Association for Prevention and Control of Rabies in India (APCRI) to be held in Chennai on Saturday.Sources said that APCRI is providing academic and administrative support to the pilot project which is also being carried out in four more cities including Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi and Pune with National Centre for Disease and Control (NCDC), Delhi, as the nodal agency for project implementation.Earlier at a press conference here on Friday, Deborah J Briggs, executive director of Global Alliance for Rabies Control, said, “Of the nearly 55,000 deaths in Asia and Africa due to rabies, India has the maximum as 20,000 people die in the country every year. Nearly 26 per cent of children below 15 are victims of dog bites every year.” Dr G Sampath, president of APCRI, said the government has discontinued nerve tissue vaccine and is now advocating the use of Intra Dermal Route of Vaccine (IDRV) administration, which has been tested in East Asian nations for about a decade. Dr Sampath also said one can reduce 50 per cent mortality by washing their hands immediately after the dog bite.Dr Mary J Warell, Oxford Vaccine group, UK, said the major cause of deaths is lack of awareness about rabies as 60 per cent of people have died as they never washed their wounds and never took any treatment.Dr Mayil Vahanan Natarajan, vice-chancellor of Tamil Nadu Dr MGR University, will inaugurate the conference, which will be attended by about 300 delegates across the country.