If things can go wrong, certainly they will.
The Murphy’s Law comes in handy on deserted streets where people, especially minors, have to come across with packs of dogs, and the pack certainly goes mad and mauls the human or the animal in front of them. The Murphy’s Law again takes a strong hold when public hospitals lack rabies vaccine in Punjab and elsewhere, and in such situations it is more likely that more dog bite incidence will happen. Amid the reports of the shortage of rabies vaccine, the media reports of dog bites are going up. According to a report by the Special Branch of Punjab police, of the 2,118 hospitals across the province, anti-rabies vaccine is available only in 12 percent of the hospitals. Of them, the south Punjab region is the worst hit by the shortage of the life-saving vaccine. Nishtar Hospital in Multan, district headquarters hospital and teaching hospitals of the region have been without the supply of the vaccine for the last one year. Dera Ghazi Khan division has only 12 hospitals, of 217, where anti-rabies vaccine is available. The situation in the central Punjab is not encouraging either. What to speak of the supply of the vaccine to rural health facilities when Lahore’s four premier hospitals – Children’s Hospital, Mayo Hospital, Services Hospital and Nawaz Sharif Social Security Hospital – have been without the vaccine for the last one year.
Summer is the season of dog bites. In the winter, the low season, 15 people died from bites of street dogs, while in all 1,945 cases were reported. One death would have nudged the government towards making a plausible mechanism to ensure the supply of the vaccine to public hospitals. But 15 deaths altogether in the last six months, all in the low season, and 1,945 cases of dog bites have failed to stir the government circles. Of the 15 deceased, five are children from Rahim Yar Khan. There is tendency in government circles and media houses to pay less attention to the eventualities occurring in the places off the capital. The Muzaffargarh medical superintendent of the district headquarters hospital says even though they have paid the sum to the National Health of Institute in Islamabad in June last, they have yet to get the supply of the vaccine.
Our part of the world needs to be educated about the animals carrying rabies. Every dog bite is not a case of rabies. Similarly, the people keeping pet dogs, cats and other animals should get them rabies vaccinated. So far, no government department or civil society has drawn their attention towards street dogs. When the world is turning towards dogs shelter, our municipalities turn to putting them down. That is not animal cruelty. That is unforgivable atrocity.
It is time to take rabies and dogs seriously. *