Matrix Report
Matrix Media reported, in June, that in the first five months of 2019, January to the end of May, the number of dog bites in Sindh were nearly 70,000. This number has risen heavily since then. Currently, the number of dog bite cases reported has risen to 0.13 million with over a dozen deaths due to dog bites.
While the dog bite cases are on the rise, Pakistan is facing a shortage of Rabies vaccine. Experts say there are two reasons behind the shortage of the vaccine- firstly, due to the rising tensions between India and Pakistan, import of vaccines and healthcare products have declined. Secondly, our alternative source of the Rabies vaccine was China. China, however, stopped their operations at one of its plants and importing from them is no longer an option.
Over the past month, we saw Edhi Foundation running a campaign to take stray and rabid dogs off the streets. The operation was quickly shut down when videos of the operation surfaced – the public declared the acts as violent, abusive, and against animal rights. Since then, no other strategy has been employed to deal with the issue of stray dogs.
The Minister of Health has just stated that Pakistan produces 200,000 Rabies vaccines per year – 2,500 of which have been supplied to Sindh on an emergency basis. The Minister also stated that provision of the vaccines to private hospitals is not the responsibility of the Ministry. Even though there are 200,000 vaccines being produced each year, the country requires 0.8 to 1.0 million vaccines to meet the demand of the country.
We need to take steps to end the stray dog epidemic to put an end to matter as a whole. In other words, eliminating the problem from the root of it all. The Sindh government has a major responsibility to its citizens, where they must find feasible and humane solutions to the issue at hand, with better medical care and vaccine research.
