World Rabies Day: Number of dog bites in Karnataka this year exceeds 2023 figure

In 2022, the State declared human rabies — a fatal viral disease that spreads through the bite of rabid animals, mainly dogs — a notifiable disease under the Karnataka Epidemic Diseases Act, 2020

Dog bites are on the rise in Karnataka with the number of cases this year so far have already crossed last year’s total. While 2,73,037 cases have been reported this year till date, as many as 2,32,754 were reported in the whole of 2023. 

In fact, the rise has been the highest this year the post-pandemic. In 2022, as many as 1,63,366 dog bite cases were reported. While the State has recorded three rabies (dog bite) deaths this year so far, four deaths were recorded in the whole of 2023 and three in 2022.

According to data from the State Health Department’s Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), over 55,000 dog bite cases have been reported since August. In September alone (till September 27), over 25,000 dog bite cases have been reported. Officials said an average of 28,000 cases are being reported in the State every month of which a majority are from Bengaluru Urban and BBMP areas (23,798) followed by Vijayapura (17,514), Mysuru (15,866), Belagavi (14,195), Mandya (13,992) and Shivamogga (13,875). 

The least number of cases have been reported in Yadgir (1,326), Kalaburagi (2,134) Chamarajanagar (2,484), Raichur (2,911) and Dharwad (3,230). September 28 is observed as World Rabies Day and the theme for this year is ‘Breaking rabies boundaries’.

Notifiable disease

In 2022, Karnataka declared human rabies — a fatal viral disease that spreads through the bite of rabid animals (mainly dogs) — a notifiable disease under the Karnataka Epidemic Diseases Act, 2020.

Following this, it became mandatory for all government and private health facilities (including medical colleges) to report all suspected, probable, and confirmed human rabies cases to the State Health Department. 

State IDSP Project Director Ansar Ahmed told The Hindu that the elimination of dog-bite mediatedrabies by2030 is the State’s mission under the National Rabies Control Programme (NRCP). “Anti-Rabies Vaccine (ARV) and Rabies Immunoglobulin (RIG) have been made a part of the annual indent supply by Karnataka State Medical Supplies Corporation Ltd. (KSMSCL), and sufficient stock is being maintained in all government hospitals up to the Primary Health Centre (PHC) level,” he said.

“From October last year, the Health Department is providing free ARV and RIG injection to all animal bite victims, irrespective of their BPL or APL status,” said the doctor, who previously headed the State-run Epidemic Diseases Hospital.

Stating that prevention, control, and elimination of rabies from a geographical area can only be achieved through strong surveillance and disease-portal reporting systems, Dr. Ahmed said, “Human rabies is declared as a notifiable disease to facilitate contact-tracing and prompt prophylactic measures to prevent infection in other people exposed to the same source. We are working in coordination with other departments to conduct annual mass dog vaccination campaigns (MDVs) in targeted areas to achieve a minimum dog population vaccination rate of 70%, check dog bites and prevent deaths.” 

Rabies burden in India

M.K. Sudarshan, founder president and mentor of Association for Prevention and Control of Rabies in India (APCRI), said the number of human rabies cases and deaths are grossly under-reported in the country.

Quoting a recent national multicenter rabies survey done by ICMR’s National Institute of Epidemiology, Chennai, Dr. Sudarshan said this survey had estimated that there were 5,726 human rabies deaths and 9.1 million dog bites annually in the country. This finding was shared at the 24th National Rabies Conference of APCRI held at Bhubaneswar, Orissa in August 2024, the doctor said.

Previously, the government had estimated that 20,000 human rabies deaths and 17 million animal bites occur in India. However, these figures are from the first national multicentric rabies survey done in 2003 and since then had remained the same till now, Dr. Sudarshan added.

Steps to follow in a rabies attack

Soon after a rabid animal bite, one must get first aid

Flush all the wounds with water to remove the saliva (rabies virus)

Use soap to wash the wounds as soap neutralises the virus 

Apply any household antiseptic available to neutralise the virus

Seek urgent medical help for rabies immunisation

A course of rabies vaccination usually involves 3 to 5 shots. These are given either intramuscularly or intradermally in the shoulder in adults and on the side of the thigh in infants

The schedule of vaccination is days 0, 3, 7, 14 and 28 (in case of IM) and days 0, 3, 7 and 28 (in case of ID)

Day 0 is the day/date of administration of the first dose of vaccine

In case of even minor bleeding, in addition to vaccines, rabies immunoglobulin is injected into wounds

Published - September 27, 2024 10:39 pm IST