333 fall prey to mad dogs in Mahbubnagar, Narayanpet

Mahbubnagar/Narayanpet: As many as 333 people have been attacked by stray dogs in just a fortnight's time in Mahbubnagar and Narayanpet districts. With the packs roaming freely in colonies and roads, people, especially women, children and old aged are fearing to venture into streets. Over the last one month, there have been on an average of six to 10 dog biting cases being reported every day in Primary Health Centres, area and district hospitals across the two districts.

According to healthcare experts, the main reason for the stray dogs attacking humans is rise in temperatures that activate the Rabies virus in dogs. The dogs, if get irritated, may attack humans and other animals. "The Rabies virus gets activated with rise in temperatures, and if a dog is irritated it may attack humans or any animals and infect them with the deadly virus. Of late, we have seen a rise in the cases of dog bites and providing all necessary treatment to the victims," said P Rajani, District Health and Medical Officer.

At present, the District Medical and Health officials said that they have ensured that adequate quantities of vaccine stocks were made available in the district headquarters, and supplied to PHCs, CHCs and area Hospitals on demand. Central drug stores in-charge M Govardhan said, "In the past few days, we have been getting demand for supply of more Anti-Rabies Vaccines from various government hospitals and accordingly, we are supplying it. There is no dearth of vaccine in the district."

According to statistics provided by the DM&HO, both in Mahbubnagar and Narayanpet there are 28 Primary Health Centres and in all, 333 cases of dog bites have been registered. In addition to this, already there are 223 people who are being administered with Anti-Rabies Vaccine (ARV) in both Narayanpet and Mahbubnagar districts. Combining this, the ARV has been administered to 556 in both the districts. "We have already supplied 3,000 vials of vaccines to various PHCs in the district from the central drug supplies stores in Mahbubnagar. Each PHC has been supplied with 80 vials, area hospital with 200 vials and general hospital at the district level with 600 vials. In addition to this, we are still having adequate stock of 10,200 vials available with us," said M Govardhan.