Sylhet has begun mass-vaccinating its dogs against rabies. Under a rabies elimination programme funded by Sylhet City Corporation (SCC), every dog in the city's 42 wards is to be vaccinated over 15 days, and each vaccinated dog will be marked with a special paint so vaccinated and unvaccinated animals can be told apart, Naya Diganta reports.
SCC administrator Abdul Kaiyum Chowdhury opened the Mass Dog Vaccination Campaign on Monday morning (12 October) at the upazila livestock office in Mirzajangal. Culling animals is no longer allowed, he said; local bodies used to kill dogs when numbers rose, and vaccination is now the effective way to cut the risk of people catching rabies from dogs.
Dogs gather most where leftover food is dumped and before waste is cleared, he said, and complaints have also come from schools and residential areas. Vaccination lowers the risk, he warned, but anyone bitten by a dog must not ignore it and should get rabies vaccine promptly on a doctor's advice. Residents can report areas with many dogs to the SCC hotline, its chief health officer, the district livestock officer or the civil surgeon's office.
District livestock officer Dr Md Rafiqul Islam, who chaired the event, said the city corporation, the health department and the livestock department decided on the campaign together after complaints from several areas and institutions.
SCC secretary Md Ashik Noor, chief health officer Dr Md Zahidul Islam, mass dog vaccination expert Dr Habibur Rahman and Dr Md Kamrul Islam, team coordinator of Worldwide Veterinary Service, attended with livestock and health officials.
The report is by Naya Diganta's Sylhet correspondent.
Photo: a veterinarian vaccinates a dog against rabies (file picture, Papua New Guinea). Photo: Bryan M. Ilyankoff, U.S. Navy / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
Source: Naya Diganta
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