'30,000 people die of rabies every year in India'

Hyderabad, Sep 5: Osmania Medical College (OMC) Doctors Forum President K Suresh stressed the need for tackling rabies, which claims 30,000 lives every year in the country.

Addressing a press conference yesterday at the OMC ahead of the first Annual World Rabies Day to be observed on September eight, he said rabies was being neglected though a person died of the zoonotic disease almost every ten minutes in the world. Three million dog bites were reported every year in the country. Every ten minutes, a dog bites a child in Hyderabad, which had a dog population of two million.

''Rabies is a disease that is 100 per cent preventable and there is no reason why we can't prevent it,'' he said, adding that if dog rabies could be controlled, the number of human rabies deaths would come down drastically.

Dr Suresh said observation of World Rabies Day was to educate about the need to vaccinate pets and promote responsible pet ownership. ''We want to include children in this education because most of the time, it is the children who get exposed and bitten, because they do not know how to act around dogs, cats or other animals.'' A painting competition would be organised for school children at the OMC on the day, he added.

He said institutions taking care of animals and human health were coming together to mark the first rabies day, when rallies and interactive sessions would be held all over the world.

UNI