Efforts will be made soon to enumerate the number of stray dogs in The Nilgiris, said B. Sekar, Director, Pasteur Institute of India (PII).
On the sidelines of a quiz programme on ‘Human Health and Vaccines’, organised as part of the observance of World Rabies Day here on Saturday, Mr. Sekar said that the task would be taken up by a Coordination Committee formed by the District Collector to step up surveillance.
Though about 20,000 rabies cases were reported in India every year, in The Nilgiris no cases had been reported either among animals or humans for the past five or six years.
Anti-rabies vaccine was now available in all the Primary Health Centres in the district.
Focus was on vaccinating dogs. Between 2012 when vaccine production was revived at the PII after a break and 2014, 387 lakh doses of DPT vaccines had been produced and so far this fiscal 85 lakh doses had come out.
To a query, Dr. Sekar said that the work on putting up a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) DPT unit at a cost of Rs. 145 crore was making good progress. Stating that all the equipment would be installed by 2016, he added that trial batch production would commence immediately.
Competitions such as essay, drawing and quiz organised in connection with the observance of the World Rabies Day had evoked a good response, he said and added that the objective was to enhance awareness about the malady.
