A
free rabies vaccination campaign has been launched by the Department of
Livestock Services, in a fight to eradicate the disease from our midst in this
country.
The
campaign has been launched also in respect of World Rabies Day observed in The
Gambia on Wednesday 28 September under the theme: “Educate, Vaccinate and
Eliminate”.
This
theme is more than appropriate; it is also really timely considering the
effects of rabies to humankind around the world, mainly transmitted through
rabid dog bites.
“Rabies
kills estimated 70,000 people in the world, mostly children in the developing
countries in which approximately 95% of
human cases are due to rabid dog bites, according to the world Organization for
Animal Health (OIE),” the deputy
Agriculture minister has said.
Across
the world 100 children die from rabies every day, according to Mission Rabies,
an international institution dedicated to fighting and eradicating rabies
around the world.
It
said rabies is a global problem that leads to the suffering and premature
deaths of thousands of people and dogs.
“In
India alone, every 2 seconds someone is bitten by a dog and around 24 people a
day suffer an excruciating death from rabies - over half of which are children.
“Post-bite
immunisations cost the Indian economy over $25million a year, yet more people
die of rabies in India than anywhere else in the world.”
This
is a serious situation, which we in The Gambia cannot afford to contend with;
hence we must do all it takes to eradicate rabies in our midst by first
tackling the dogs in our communities.
Apart
from those at homes, we have a lot of stray dogs in the communities we really
need to take care of, to be able to prevent the spread of this disease in our
society.
This
is more so because rabies is transmitted from animals to humans and the main
source of the disease in African countries is unvaccinated dogs.
We
as a nation must be really serious about solving the menace of stray dogs in
our society.
The
following is a publication by www.healthline.com on the Rabies.
Recognizing
the Symptoms of Rabies
The
period between the bite and the onset of symptoms is called the incubation
period. It usually takes four to 12 weeks for a person to develop rabies
symptoms once they’re infected. However, incubation periods can also range from
a few days to six years.
The
initial onset of rabies begins with flu-like symptoms, including:
• fever
• muscle weakness
• tingling
You
may also feel burning at the bite site.
As
the virus continues to attack the central nervous system, there are two
different types of the disease that can develop.
Furious
Rabies
Infected
people who develop furious rabies will be hyperactive and excitable and may
display erratic behavior. Other symptoms include:
• insomnia
• anxiety
• confusion
• agitation
• hallucinations
• excess salivation
• problems swallowing
• fear of water
Paralytic
Rabies
This
form of rabies takes longer to set in, but the effects are just as severe.
Infected people slowly become paralyzed, will eventually slip into a coma, and
die. According to the World Health Organization, 30 percent of rabies cases are
paralytic.
“A
dog that has rabies probably will do things it wouldn’t do if it didn’t have
rabies. But that doesn’t change the fact that it has rabies”
John
Malkovich
