Kidapawan registers registers zero dog bite since January

MANAR KIDAPAWAN CITY – The City Veterinarian Office here has registered a zero dog bite case since January this year, a veterinarian said.This, according to City Veterinarian Eugene Gornez, can be attributed to their intense campaign against rabies that they started in 2017. We have to intensify our campaign because for two years already, we registered several cases of dog bites, said Gornez.Data showed that in 2016, Gornez’s office monitored at least 1,760 dog bite cases.It increased by 11.3 percent or 1,960 cases in 2017, the data added.Gornez was surprised that since January this year, no dog bite case has been monitored or recorded by his office.Despite this, Gornez said they won’t stop in their campaign against rabies and would also push through their anti-rabies vaccination activities, especially in the barangays.The vaccination is to protect the people and other animals, he stressed.Gornez said rabies is a deadly virus spread to people from the saliva of infected animals and the rabies virus is usually transmitted through a bite.Animals most likely to transmit rabies are stray dogs, he explained.He warned that once a person begins showing signs and symptoms of rabies, the disease is nearly always fatal. So it is important that dog owners bring their pets to our office and have them vaccinated.This is primarily to protect people from getting infected with the rabies virus, which is deadly, he said.