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BENGKULU – Approximately 79,355 unvaccinated rabies host animals are roaming the neighborhoods in Bengkulu Province. This condition is a public health concern.

Head of Bengkulu Province Livestock and Animal Health Services, Irianto Abdullah, stated there are over 150 thousand rabies host animals in the province; however the provincial government is only capable of providing rabies vaccines for 72,642 animals.

“Local government awareness to allocate budget for rabies vaccines is still low. Hence, all vaccine procurement is still from the Provincial and National Budget,” said Irianto on Thursday, January 22, 2015.
Meanwhile, rabies cases are declining every year. There were 11 cases in 2011, 9 cases in 2012, 8 cases in 2014, and 7 cases in 2014 (1 case in Kepahyang District, 1 case in South Bengkulu District, 2 cases in Central Bengkulu District and 3 cases in Bengkulu city).

“Compared to other provinces in Sumatra, we have low number of cases. Publication of the local regulation on rabies case control this year is very helpful, we believe it will further reduce the number of rabies cases in this region,” said Irianto.
Irianto said rabies host animals are not limited to dogs, but also include cats and monkeys. However, rabies transmission is still dominated by dogs. So far cats contribute 0 percent.

Bengkulu provincial government is committed to free the province from rabies in 2015, while the island of Sumatra is targeted to be free from rabies in 2018.

“We vaccinate [animals] against rabies once a year. In the future, we hope local governments will participate in allocating enough budget to procure rabies vaccines so all host animals can be vaccinated,” said Irianto. (Phesi Ester Julkawati)

Source:  Tempo.co