Fatal bite

Thanjavur: Sakthi Saravanan is a class 9 student of Marimmankoil boys high school near Thanjavur. His uncle was bitten by a dog. Saravanan was witness to the cruel death of his uncle due to rabies. He explained how his uncle died after rabies manifested at an awareness programme held in the school a few weeks back. 

In the programme organised by ‘Mission Rabies’, he explained how his uncle died. 

“My uncle had excessive salivation, hydrophobia (fear of water due to difficulty in swallowing), hallucination etc and had to be isolated at the time of death. He finally died due to cardio respiratory arrest”.

Death due to rabies is cruel. But then it is preventable. It can be prevented from escaping from rabid dog bite. It can be prevented if immediate measures are taken like washing the bitten spot with water, taking anti rabies injections etc. But the message has to be spread. 

Murugan Appupilai, director of ‘Mission Rabies Education (India)’, was in Thanjavur last week as part of Mission rabies campaign to create awareness to prevent rabies. He spoke at various schools and colleges. According to him, Goa can be taken as a model for prevention of rabies.

Goa may become free from rabies by 2020-thanks to measures taken under ‘Mission Rabies’, said Murugan, who has been working in the project to eradicate rabies from India at Goa for the past six years. 

“In India 20,000 people die of rabies annually. As many as 17 people died in Goa in 2014. There are 84 lakh dog bites in India in a year. In Goa 19,624 dog bites occur in a year,” Murugan said. .Stressing that mass vaccination of dogs was the best way of preventing rabies, Murugan said hence ‘Mission Rabies’ gave importance to dogs vaccination. “Our plan is to vaccinate one lakh dogs in a year,” he said. “By vaccinating dogs we prevent the disease at the source,” he said.