Stray dog menace worsens in Thoothukudi and hospitals are flooded with patients waiting for anti-rabies vaccine

The Thoothukudi Medical College Hospital (TKMCH) and the Urban Primary Health Centres in this port town are being flooded with patients waiting for anti-rabies vaccination as stray dogs indiscriminately attack public, especially the children, women and the senior citizens.

According to the sources in TKMCH, the hospital alone receives everyday 18 to 20 patients for anti-rabies vaccination after the stray dog menace in Thoothukudi has breached all tolerable limits. And, the number of patients getting vaccination and treatment from the urban primary health centres and the private hospitals is much higher. Most of these patients are innocent children, women and the elderly. Some of these children have suffered bites on the face which may leave permanent scar on the face.

“We have to blame the Thoothukudi Corporation for not initiating sustained action to control the stray dog population. Even as the clueless urban local body is mutely staring at this serious issue, the innocent public are being targetted by the stray dogs,” said a doctor from TKMCH.

Even as each dose of anti-rabies vaccine costs around ₹350, the TKMCH has so far administered 8,600 anti-rabies doses since January last while this number stands at 26,000 in the urban primary health centres and the primary health centres.

“It does mean that the government has spent over ₹1.21 crore in the past 254 days – around ₹48,000 per day – on purchasing anti-rabies vaccines for the victims from Thoothukudi district alone. I’ve not included the number of patients, who have got treatment in the private hospitals for dog bite. I haven’t included the treatment cost and the damage caused to the vehicles involved in the dogs-induced accidents. Why should the government machinery tolerate this menace even as its citizens are being brutally hunted down by the stray dogs?” asked a doctor serving in an urban primary health centre here.

Even though 12 persons have died of rabies since January last in Thoothukudi, the medical records of TKMCH and the urban primary health centres in Thoothukudi comfortably say that there was no death due to rabies.

“This is due to a technical issue… Whenever a person dies of medico legal case, autopsy would be conducted to determine the cause of death. Since most of the families do not want to conduct autopsy of the patients who die due to rabies, there are no medical record to prove this. As a doctor of TKMCH and the information I get from my friends working with the urban primary health centres and the private hospitals, I can say that Thoothukudi has lost 12 persons to rabies this year so far. This number may be still higher and will go up certainly if the Corporation and the government officials turn blind eye to this issue,” said another doctor.

Corporation Commissioner S. Priyanka, who assumed office only recently, told The Hindu that the Corporation had initiated the process for setting-up animal birth control unit by purchasing all the equipment required for sterilization and other procedures to control stray dog population in Thoothukudi.

“This exercise will be completed shortly so that the animal birth control centre will be ready by September-end. Moreover, pet dog owners have been instructed to vaccinate their dogs properly and the Corporation will create vaccination tracking system to follow the vaccination of pet animals,” Ms. Priyanka said.