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Soroti, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Soroti district health leaders have decried the increasing cases of dog bites that are not reported to the health facilities.
Dr Charles Okadhi, the Soroti District Health Officer says that only 37 out of 240 cases that were registered by the veterinary department were reported in health facilities in the 2023/2024 financial year.
This month, 16 cases of animal bites were reported in health facilities out of the 120 recorded in the veterinary department.
Soroti launched the mass rabies vaccination campaign and community education in partnership with the Makerere University Erabies project at Kamuda sub-county headquarters on Wednesday.
The 21-day vaccination exercise is targeting all dogs and cats in Kamuda Sub County and the nearby parishes. The vaccination follows the outbreak of rabies in Soroti district where 36 dog bites cases were reported in Katine last year with 16 dogs killed while 15 pupils had dog bites in Kamuda Sub County in November alone. Rabies is also reported in Soroti City.
However, Dr. John Opolot, the Assistant Commissioner of Veterinary Health and Zoonosis warned the locals against taking people bitten by a rabid dog to the witch doctors.
Dr Opolot asked development partners to support locals vaccinating their dogs saying they are currently receiving reports of more people dying from rabbies in Sembabule and Butaleja districts.
Dr. Peter Wanyama, the Assistant Commissioner of Veterinary Diagnostics and Epidemiology at MAAIF said rabies is now endemic in the country with an average of 13,000 suspected rabies cases in humans recorded and a total of 975 suspected cases reported in animals.
According to Wanyama, 32 people and 130 animals die due to rabies annually with 40 percent of the human deaths being children below 15 years of age.
Dr Wanyama revealed that MAAIF has planned to vaccinate 70 percent of the national population annually for five years to eliminate the deadly disease.
Prof. Dr. Sonja Hartnack, working with the section of veterinary epidemiology at the University of Zurich in Switzerland said they aim to provide data so that it contributes to the decision-making in terms of resource allocation.
She said their commitment is aimed at ending the youth dying due to rabies bites by 2030.
The dog vaccination project is implemented in other districts as well in partnership with the Swiss National Science Foundation, Infectious Disease Institute (IDI), Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industries and Fisheries (MAAIF), and University of Zurich among others.
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