3/8/2016

Canine menace bites denizens - TELANGANA - The Hindu

TODAY'S PAPER TELANGANA

March 8, 2016

Canine menace bites denizens

Serish Nanisetti

The GHMC estimates that there are about 2.8 lakh strays in the city. file photo

As many as 61,749 dog bite cases were recorded in the city in 2015
yderabad recorded 46 cases of rabies in 2013-14. The statistics for the past year have not been tabulated but they are unlikely to be any
different. We are recording at least 30 cases of dog bites every day, says Dr. K. Shankar, medical superintendent of the Institute of Tropical
and Communicable Diseases.
Just outside the gate of the hospital cradling two-year-old Ashraf is his mother who brought her child after nearly 10 hours after a stray dog
bit him at Jilleguda in Mirpet.
He was playing inside the house in the evening when a dog walked in through the grill of the door and bit him. And by the time I rushed out, it
had torn of his cheek, says the mother, as the child looks puzzled and quiet after a night of bawling in pain. There are bite marks on the neck
also. There are so many dogs in the area and nobody is killing them or removing them from the area, she says, her eyes swelling up with
tears looking at her child with the bite marks having turned black after the bleeding.
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3/8/2016

Canine menace bites denizens - TELANGANA - The Hindu

A few kilometres away is the Institute of Preventive Medicine which locals call kukkalu dawakhana. It is here that the true effect of runaway
stray dog population growth is visible. Every day, we give the anti-rabies shot to nearly 120 people. As some would be coming back for
multiple injections, there are at least 80 fresh cases every day.
If the case looks very bad then they are sent to Institute of Tropical and Communicable Diseases, says an official on the condition of
anonymity.
According to GHMC records, 61,749 dog bite cases were recorded in the city in 2015 an astronomical 169 cases every day.
We give equine immunoglobin around the dog bite site and the dosage is based on the body weight of the person. First, we give a test dose
and if there is no reaction then we give the shot as one in 1 lakh population may develop reaction for equine immunoglobin, says Dr. Shankar.
One of the areas where dog bite cases are most frequently reported is Autonagar. I suspect that the GHMC officials are releasing the dogs
that have been sterilised in this area. I have taken up the issue with officials. Lets see what happens now, said Vanasthalipuram corporator
Jitta Rajasekhar Reddy, after a girl returning from school was mauled by dogs.
As summer is here, the cases are likely to go up as dogs become irritable, thirsty and hungry and they snap at people and children. We are
likely to see a rise in the number of cases as summer takes its peak form, says Dr. Shankar.
The GHMC estimates that there are about 2.8 lakh strays in the city and 1.5 lakh dogs have been sterilised between 2013 and 2015.
According to People for Ethical Treatment of Animals website, just one unaltered female dog and her offspring can produce 67,000 puppies in
only six years. Between these two numbers is the secret of multiplying dogs and dog bite cases in Hyderabad.

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