KUCHING: The rabies disease is seriously being dealt with all over
Malaysia especially in Sarawak and efforts are being intensified to curb
it from spreading.
Chief assistant director of biosecurity
and sanitary and phytosanitary measures management, Department of
Veterinary Services Malaysia, Dr Rozanah Asmah Abd Samad said in
Peninsular Malaysia, all dog owners are urged to vaccinate their dogs
especially in the immune belt area which are areas near the borders of
Thailand and Kalimantan, Indonesia.
“In this immune belt
area it is compulsory for all dog owners to get their canines vaccinated
and for stray dogs that has rabies, they will be put to sleep to avoid
the disease from spreading,” she said at the 39th Asian Medical
Students’ Conference 2018 in University Putra Malaysia here, today.
She
said in Sarawak, it is bit difficult to curb the disease as the
veterinary service staff have to go to rural areas which is very time
consuming and laborious.
But nevertheless, the veterinary
staff is employing the same strategy in Peninsular Malaysia and the
department is trying to control the disease from spreading by putting
some dogs with rabies to sleep but non-governmental organisations is
making it a bit of a challenge for the department due to their
protestations.
“The NGOs have to understand that infected
dogs are very hazardous to our health and we put down the dogs in a
humane way. Catching them is hard and some are fierce and we try our
hardest to curb this disease and we are planning to do an awareness
campaign regarding this matter,” said Rozanah.
She added
reports on dog bites can be lodged at any hospitals and they will inform
the vetinary department to handle the animals.
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