'Rabies kill 2,000 a year'

Health experts said government should implement national level strategies and mobilise necessary resources to prevent and control the spread of rabies in the country.
Dr Aung Swi Prue Marma, an expert in rabies, said this when presenting a keynote paper at a press conference held at Infectious Diseases Hospital at Mohakhali in the capital yesterday.
He said rabies is the most neglected tropical disease in Bangladesh and about 2,000 people die from it every year, along with a good number of livestock.
As many as 3 lakh people receive post-exposure treatment for rabies each year, with 85 percent of them coming mostly from rural areas, he added.
Dr Aung said lack of awareness among people is a major problem in rabies treatment here. Unavailability of Tissue Culture Vaccine (TCV), use of toxic Nervous Tissue Vaccine (NTV), treatment by traditional healers, unsafe dog population and lack of efforts to control animal rabies are other major problems that hinder rabies control in the country, the keynote paper added.
Dr Aung said rabies prevention and control programme should be an integral part of health, livestock and local government bodies. He stressed on partnership of communities and NGOs, and adequate mobilisation of human and financial resources in controlling rabies.
Other experts at the programme also talked on management of dog population by registration of pet dogs, vaccination of pet and stray dogs, and elimination of dogs with the disease.
Prof Dr Moazzem Hossain, Dr Baizid Khoorshid Riaz and Dr Jagadish Chandra Ghosh, among others, were present at the briefing.