PANAJI: During the six-month period from January to June this year, the Panaji urban health centre has received and treated over 1,410 dog-bite cases, said medical officer Dr Sweta Desai.
She said that the health centre receives 250 such cases per month on an average and exhausts 700 to 800 anti-rabies vaccines per month.
“Lot of people with dog bites, cat bites, monkey bites and rat bites approach us for treatment from the surrounding areas of Panaji,” the medical officer said. “We have cases from St Cruz, Chimbel, Mapusa, Porvorim, Betim, Bambolim, Tonca, Siridao and Agacaim areas besides other interior villages,” she said.
The medical officer said that the victims mostly include senior citizens and nearly ten per cent of the cases involve children from 1 to 5 years old. Victims also include school students, she said adding that cases involving youth as victims are very few.
Requesting the owners of pet dogs to vaccinate the canines on time or consult veterinary doctors, the medical officer said that there is fear of rabies when the dogs are not vaccinated properly.
“Apart from stray dog bite cases, we have cases involving pet dogs, cats, monkeys and even rats. In May, there were 236 dog-bite cases reported, 11 cat-bite cases, 3 rat-bite cases and one case involving a monkey bite,” Desai said.
She said that for a normal dog bite or cat bite, the urban health centre prescribes five normal doses. “But it depends on the nature of the wound. If the bite is too deep, we refer the victims to the Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMC), Asilo Hospital or Hospicio Hospital for immunoglobulin, as it is not available with the Urban Health Centre,” she said.
The medical officer suggested that a dog-bite victim should not delay and be immediately rushed to a health centre following the bite. However, before that, the wound should be washed with soap and water. “Some people visit a health centre after a week or a month and complicate the case,” she said. Victims sometimes also take a gap while undergoing medication and delay the doses. Victims should rush immediately for medical aid and in the absence of an urban health centre, the GMC is open 365 days a year for 24 hours, Desai said.