Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Killing of dogs in Bali ineffective in stemming rabies

It's a shame that yet another government has decided to take the short term (and ineffective) approach rather than embark on a sterilisation and vaccination programme. Equally sad is the fact that there seem to be insufficient rabies post-exposure vaccines around.

As the article notes, killing the dogs is ineffective and in fact probably hurts as the vacuum effect will kick in. If you are ever in a situation where a dog seems aggressive, this article gives some tips - it also notes that ALL dogs can bite, but that they may not do so out of aggression, but out of fear.

It is also good to be careful when approaching a dog - just the other day, I bent down and offered my hand to an acquaintance's dog. However I forgot cardinal rule Number One : ask the owner first because I assumed the dog would remember me. It was twilight, and there were some other dogs barking, that stressed my acquaintance's dog out. So I got a nip on my knuckles, which was entirely my fault.

2 comments:

Orlando Puppies said...

The vaccine doesn't do anything, it's the immunoglobin shot that actually treats and prevents the disease. The immunoglobin is a bit expensive however and that is usually the problem in poor countries.

Dawn said...

Thanks for that piece of information - the article mentioned a post-exposure vaccination and I was confused.