Thanjavur: All you need to know about rabies virus

Thanjavur: Rabies virus is a ‘RNA Lyssa Virus’. Any mammal can be infected, but 99 per cent dogs are the mediators of the virus. The virus is maintained in the free roaming street dog population. When it bites other animals, pets the virus is passed to that animal. Killing of dogs is not a solution as dog population is on the increase ever. 

Dogs give birth to 32 puppies in their life of six years. So managing dog population through sterilization and vaccinating them are major steps in rabies control, says Murugan Appupillai, director, Mission Rabies Education (India). 

As children are vulnerable to dog bites as they play with pets, educating children how to behave with dogs will help in preventing do bites. Educating them not to disturb a dog when it takes food, sleep and ‘stand still without running’ on seeing an approaching angry dog and taking first aids in case of dog bites will go a long way in preventing rabies, Murugan said.

“Luckily now WHO has said that taking four injections are enough to prevent manifestation of rabies instead of 14 in the past, but this has to be done to prevent rabies,” Murugan said.  

Injections should be given on the day of dog bite, third day after the bite, seventh day and 14th day. This will be a relief to victims of dog bite, he said. “Under Mission Rabies, we have conducted awareness programmes on rabies for 12 lakh children in India and 35,000 teachers so far,”  Murugan said.

He also said that the state governments should step in like in Goa to achieve rabies-free India.  Services of animal husbandry department should be utilised to sustain the campaign and prevent the disease. “Many rabies death go unnoticed in Tamil Nadu,” Murugan regretted. “At Madurai, we have seen rabid patients locked up at the rabies ward at Erskin Rajaji hospital,” he pointed out, hoping public health authorities will wake up.