Dog bites in hills on rise
Posted by barunroy on March 14, 2008
Darjeeling, March 13: Incidences of dog bites have surfaced in the hill town with the Darjeeling Municipality not functioning for the past one month.
Plaban Das, medical director, Planter’s Hospital, today confirmed seven cases of dog bites, which were treated in the hospital in February. “The victims included two foreigners and of the seven cases only one had been bitten by a pet dog,” Das said.
A 17-year-old boy from Arunachal Pradhesh studying in Darjeeling is being “suspected” of having contacted rabies. “The boy did not seem to have taken the bite seriously. He got alarmed only after the dog died 15 days of the bite. He contacted a local pharmacy which suggested him anti-rabies vaccine but that seems to have been insufficient in this case,” the doctor said.
People who are bitten by dogs should get treated within 24 hours. Medical experts maintain that any delay could be fatal as the earliest confirmation of rabies comes only after 10 days.
The municipality has a “dog squad” but since it is closed for the past one month, no action on street dogs has been taken. “Our road chowkidars usually inform us about dog bites and we refer the cases to health officials. The last report of dog bite we received was in February, as all departments except for essential services are closed,” said R Thatal, the civic body’s executive officer.
The impasse in the municipality is because of the indefinite strike called by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha. The party has questioned the legality of the election of the chairman, which had taken place in the absence of government observer. [The Telegraph | Vivek Chettri]
May 28, 2008 at 12:26 pm
I’m shelter vet for Kalimpong Animal Shelter. We have been carrying on an animal birth control ( ABC )and anti-rabies vaccination programme for stray dogs in Kalimpong for the last ten years. As a result of our sustained efforts the stray dog population in Kalimpong has significantly gone down. The incidence of dog bites are insignificant here and cases of rabies are no longer being recorded in our ABC/ARV area for the past six years barring two incidences where the bite and spread was by a ‘pet’ to the ‘owner’. We have laid lot of emphasis on mass awareness programme as well through bilingual leaflets.
Following the success of our programme in Kalimpong we received numerous requests to open a similar unit in Darjeeling to run ABC/ARV programme by the local residents of Darjeeling. Difficulty to find a suitable land with facilities like road access, electricity, water and other basic amenities delayed our programme. Two years back our sister organisation Darjeeling Goodwill Animal Shelter ( DGAS) purchased a suitable land and now the infrastructure is about to be completed in 4 to 6 weeks time.
We had two rounds of meetings with the newly formed municipality in Darjeeling in the last one month which were attended by various other NGOs. DGAS has taken the responsibility of carrying on ABC/ARV programme for all the stray and community dogs of Darjeeling. From Monday 26th May 2008 DGAS staff and vet are active vaccinating all the free roaming dogs of Darjeeling. Volunteers from Morning Health Club are helping our team in locating and vaccinating the dogs. This programme is getting the support of the Darjeeling Municipality in the form of manpower. The vaccinated dogs are identified by the red collars they don after vaccination.
Rabies control is a slow process which will be attained only through mass sterilisation and immunisation of both the stray and community owned dog population. Cooperation and support from the local people of Darjeeling will be of immense help. Thanks. Dr Naveen Pandey email naveen@helpinsuffering.org
June 26, 2008 at 1:44 pm
dear Dr.
We really need an effective programme for maitaining the level of stray dogs in the area. However it would be best if we could educate the people and involve more students into this programme.
I guess encouraging young adults from schools and colleges would help us to do so.
Even if nothing much can be done from my side my support and my best wishes are with you and your team