Dogs fewer, but bite cases on the rise

BANGALORE: Strange as it may sound, the dip in canine population isn't balancing the number of dog bite cases. Even as the city's stray canine population has gone down by 21 per cent, as cited in the BCC's Animal Birth Control programme, the number of dog bite cases has shot up by 800 this year in Bangalore. And in Karnataka, it has risen by a mighty 31,030 bites.The result: dearth of vaccine and serum stock in government hospitals. Though explosive, the numbers fortunately reveal fewer incidences of rabid dog bite cases and related deaths this year; Bangalore has recorded zero deaths so far. But rabid or not, the number of patients administered with the mandatory anti-rabies vaccine (ARVs) following dog bites is increasing. A course of modern tissue culture vaccine for dog bites costs Rs 1,000. "But given that the state budget for drugs in hospitals is a mere Rs 60 crore, provision of ARVs is inadequate," health commissionerate sources say. Doctors, however, suggest that the government try and negotiate the cost of ARVs. "Government hospitals should ensure a full course of treatment for dog bite cases, including post-exposure vaccines, access to modern tissue culture vaccines and life-saving anti-rabies serum. This is still not the case in several government hospitals," rues Dr B G Mahendra, department of Community Medicine, KIMS. Both doctors and NGOs co-ordinating the ABC programme agree that awareness on dog bite cases is increasing, which is probably why more cases are entering the record books of late. "Human intolerance for barking dogs and change in territory for stray canines, may trigger bite cases," feels Suparna Ganguly, trustee of CUPA, an animal welfare organisation. The BCC's latest livestock census pegs the city's dog population at about 1,11,000, of which 56,000 are stray. "That means a sizeable pet dog population are accounted for dog bite cases in the city," points out Suparna.