rabies
Today is World Rabies Day.Bangladesh ranks third in South Asia in the number of rabies patients. More than 200 people are still dying of rabies in the country every year. Especially dog bites are killing them. The death toll in the incident in Dhaka is more than 50. Although this number has decreased by 10 percent in the last 10 years, the number of people infected with dogs has more than doubled.
According to the Department of Health’s Zoonotic Disease Control Program, the number of rabies deaths across the country in 2009 was around 2,000. In 2019, it has come down to 200 people.
Director of the Department of Health (Disease Control) Professor Dr Shahnila Ferdousi told rabies is now prevented through vaccination. People know that too. The rabies vaccine is given through 67 centers across the country. In the last financial year, about three lakh vials of vaccine have been provided by the Department of Health to various District Sadar Hospitalial and Infectious Diseases Hospital of Mohakhali.
Shahnila Ferdousi added that rabies is a deadly disease that can be transmitted from animals to human. The disease is mainly transmitted through dogs. Yet one in every 10 minutes in the world and 55,000 people a year die from the disease. Work is also underway in Bangladesh as part of a global strategy to build a dog-bite-free rabies-free world by 2030. The rabies vaccine discovered by scientist Louise Parr is 100% preventable.
News Room, September 28,2020