- Hello Jeff - Here again, for Rabies to have cases exceeding
that of TB, one wonders if the fake vaccines circulating China and the
world play a part in the rise of these numbers.
- The fake vaccines have even been found in animal shelters.
-
- Rabies is killing over 200 people per MONTH. In 1996.
there were only 163 deaths...but last year the number was 3,215. Fake
vaccines and fake medications kill people, no doubt about it.
-
- RABIES, HUMAN, CANINE - CHINA
- Date: 23 Jul 2007
- By Bill Schiller
- The Toronto Star
- 7-23-7
-
- Huagong Road, on the southeastern reaches of Beijing,
is a dusty stretch of ramshackle auto repair shops, family-run restaurants
and, unfortunately for one young man, the occasional stray dog.
-
- Early this month [July 2007], he became the latest victim
of a rabies epidemic that has astonished national and international health
officials.
-
- According to official health figures, rabies is now the
deadliest infectious disease in China. Rarely fatal in the West [because
of little exposure to rabid animals, and effective post-exposure treatment
- Mod.TY], rabies is killing more than 200 people here per month, outpacing
tuberculosis deaths in 13 of the last 14 months.
-
- In 1996, figures show only 163 Chinese died from rabies.
Last year [2006], the disease killed 3215.
-
- "The World Health Organization is extremely concerned
about the number of cases in China," says Dr. Nima Asgari, the WHO's
communicable disease specialist in Beijing. "The reason for the rise
is currently under investigation."
-
- Chinese media have also reported, in what may be an isolated
case, that officials are investigating bogus human rabies vaccines still
in circulation after having been removed from shelves 2 years ago.
-
- Last year [2006], desperate to stem the epidemic, public
health officials touched off an international storm of criticism by ordering
a mass extermination of dogs in some areas.
-
- In the province of Yunnan, officials clubbed, hanged
or electrocuted more than 50 000 dogs in a single week. In the county of
Mouding, Chinese media reported roving squads seizing dogs from their owners,
killing the pets on the spot.
-
- Another worker was bitten by the same dog that late May
2007 afternoon, but the other worker got rabies shots after the incident
and is fine.
-
- With the 2008 Olympics only a year away now, Beijing
wants to make sure nothing goes wrong, especially on the health front.
-
- As recently as 2000, not a single person died in Beijing
due to rabies. But last year [2007] there were a dozen. Local officials
want that number lowered and eliminated, if possible.
-
- Police have gotten tough enforcing a 2003 "one-family,
one-dog" policy in 8 city districts and have rounded up unregistered
dogs.
-
- Under the rule of Mao Zedong, pet ownership was frowned
upon as bourgeois and decadent. But today, with China's rising middle-class,
pet ownership has become popular.
-
- The city is home to 550 000 registered canines. But there
is believed to be an equal number still unregistered. With such a large
dog population, unfriendly interactions are bound to occur, and they do.
-
- More than 140 000 people turned up at city hospitals
last year [2006] to be treated for dog bites, all the more reason for the
government to insist on dog vaccinations.
-
- Dog registration costs the equivalent of USD 140 the
1st year for owners in central Beijing, about USD 70 annually thereafter.
That's real money in a city where the average per capita annual income
is about USD 6000.
-
- But out in the countryside and especially in the south
is where the real problem lies, says Dr. Luo Tingrong, a professor of veterinary
medicine at Guangxi University. Five key provinces -- including Guangxi
-- account for more than 70 percent of the problem.
-
- The reasons for the outbreak are 3-fold, he says: rising
incomes have meant a rapid increase in the number of dogs; far too many
remain unvaccinated; and people in the countryside, in particular, remain
unaware of the seriousness of the problem. People from the provinces, "don't
know how to deal with a bite ... and they don't seek proper treatment,"
he said.
-
-
- http://www.thestar.com/News/article/238729
-
-
- --
- Communicated b
- ProMED-mail
- promed@promedmail.org
-
- It is tragic that so many fatalities are resulting from
a disease that is preventable. A massive canine vaccination campaign coupled
with a vigorous public education effort to get pets vaccinated and to seek
post-exposure treatment when bitten, alerting health care providers to
administer proper post-exposure treatment, and elimination of stray (un-owned)
dogs could sharply reduce human rabies cases. - Mod.TY
-
- Patricia A. Doyle DVM, PhD
- Bus Admin, Tropical Agricultural Economics
- Univ of West Indies
-
- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message
board at:
- http://www.emergingdisease.org/phpbb/index.php
- Also my new website:
- http://drpdoyle.tripod.com/
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
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