The number of dog bite cases in the country is alarming, according to the annual health bulletin, 2016. However, the good news is that the number of rabies cases has been decreasing over the last four years.
The annual health bulletin revealed that over 7,000 dog bites cases were reported, last year alone. However, there was only one human death due to rabies, last year.
But from 2012-15, no cases pertinent to rabies were reported. For many years, canine population in the country has created nuisance and caused major health implications.
Realising its major health implications, the Department of Livestock under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests launched the National Dog Population Management and Rabies Control Project in 2009.
The project has helped to curb the rabies cases to a substantial level, so far.
“The heath bulletin says that dog bite cases have increased. This means the level of public awareness has proven effective. In olden times, even if there was a dog bite case, people never reported to the hospital,” said the project’s coordinator, Dr Hiruka Mahat.
With project’s mass sterilisation measures, Dr Hiruka is hopeful country’s stray dog population will decline.
“What you can see in the streets in Thimphu is a healthy population of dogs that have been sterilised and vaccinated against rabies. We don’t see many puppies roaming around the street now. The sterilised dogs will not breed and chances of getting rabies by humans will be reduced”.
Over 80,000 dogs in the country were sterilised since the project’s launch in 2009. The project’s officials have carried out mass sterilisation thrice in each district.
