Cebu vet office to conduct free rabies vaccination

CEBU, Philippines - The Department of Veterinary Medicine and Fisheries will conduct a free rabies vaccination for dogs around the barangays of Cebu City to prevent the growing case of rabies.

Cebu City Veterinarian Alice Utlang said the city has the most number of cases of rabies in dogs in Region 7.

About 50,000 doses of rabies vaccine worth P6 million were given by the Bureau of Animal Industry yesterday to the city, Utlang said.

She said barangays already have their schedules for the free vaccination that will start on January 2 until February 10.

Barangay officials will assign the area where the team would conduct the vaccination, use their service vehicles, and provide food for the volunteers and vaccinators.

Utlang said they trained vaccinators in each barangay to conduct the vaccination and have deputized citation ticket officers.

"After sa issuance sa citation ticket, mo-follow na sad ang atong population control. Bali magkapon ug ligate sa ana nga barangay. Sunod na pud, impounding na sad ana nga barangay aron full gyud ang atong implementation sa atong rabies control," Utlang said.

Utlang said that if the barangay would not cooperate and follow their assigned schedule, it will not be able to avail of the free service, unless the barangay would fully implement registration.

"Tagaan gihapon sila og bakuna, magbakuna gihapon ta sa ila pero dili na libre, mag-register na," Utlang said.

She also said there have been 18 cases of rabies in dogs recorded this year, five of which were stray dogs while the rest were house dogs.

"That's the reason why our main focus for vaccination is on the house dogs. House dogs nga free-roaming kay there are a lot of dogs right now in the city, owned pero dili confined. So mogawas-gawas, unya wala pa gyu'y bakuna, so mapaakan og rabison nga iro mao nang magka-rabies," Utlang said.

Based on records, among the barangays with rabies cases are Barangays Toong, Kinasang-an, Bonbon, Apas, Basak Pardo, Tejero, Cogon Pardo, Talamban, Kamputhaw, Duljo Fatima, San Antonio, Pahina Central, Mambaling, and Busay.  According to Durinda Macasocol, Nurse III of the City Health Department, although the Department of Health provides medicines and vaccines, there is still a need for support from the local government.

"For Cebu City, mao nang mangita gyud ta og requirement like referrals from the health centers and voter's ID or certification para to make sure nga atoa gyu'ng lumulupyo diri sa Cebu City atong ma-cater," Macasocol said.

She said that as of the 3rd quarter this year, there were 9,383 cases of rabies with two deaths. Those casualties were from Barangays Toong and Busay.

"Kani diay silang nangamatay nga mga tawo wala gyud ni niadto sa bite treatment center, nagpabakuna. Og buot huna-hunaon, naa'y daghang libreng bakuna sa rabies sa tawo sa mga bite treatment center," Utlang said.

Macasocol said all animal bite centers in almost all cities and municipalities in the Philippines are provided with vaccines, so these can give free immunization for human patients.

She also reminded the public that if they were bitten by a stray dog, they should immediately go to a barangay health center to be immunized against tetanus.  Utlang said patients would be evaluated there before they are endorsed to the bite treatment center at the City Health Department.

"If you are bitten by a dog unya ang iro bakunado, naa ra, maobserbaran ra, unya ang imong paak layo sa ulo, pwede ra i-delay ang imong pagpabakuna. Obserbahan sa ang iro, 7 to 14 days kay ang iro nga naa'y rabies gyud, maka-paak o wala, mamatay within 5 to 7 days," Utlang said.  (FREEMAN)