Denpasar – Bali Province Health Services recorded 7 people died after being bitten by confirmed positive rabid dogs from January to June 2015.

“We recorded 7 people have died from rabies and this is an outbreak since the number of cases have dropped last year,” said Head of Bali Province Health Services, dr. Ketut Suarjaya.

Currently in Bali, 110-120 people are bit by dogs every month. Ketut said there were 82 fatal human rabies cases in 2010 in Bali. “In 2012, the number of fatal human rabies cases dropped, but I don’t remember how many,” he said.

Afterwards there was only 1 human fatality in 2013, 3 fatal cases in 2014, and now 7 fatal cases from January to June this year. “Since 2008 until now we’re still experiencing a rabies outbreak,” he said.

Ketut admitted human rabies vaccine stocks for post-exposure treatment is dwindling, however there are still emergency stocks in 4 Districts. If dog bite incidences keep increasing, there won’t be enough PET available.

Therefore, he hopes Biofarma as the sole winner of e-catalog to consistently provide human rabies vaccines. So far Biofarma has only provided 10 thousand vials. The company promised 50 thousand vials by the end of May, which has yet been fulfilled.

“In the beginning we ordered 85,026 vials, but Biofarma promised only 50 thousand vials by the end of May. Now they rectified it to 10 thousand vials, so we had to report this to Government Goods/Services Procurement Policy Agency (LKPP) and the Ministry of Health,” he said.

Source: Tribunnews.com / I Putu Darmendra