The Indian State of Karnataka Aims to Eliminate Rabies By 2030
Under the Karnataka Epidemic Diseases Act, rabies is now declared a notifiable disease. The Karnataka government aims to completely eliminate rabies by 2030.
Karnataka��s State Health Minister, K. Sudhakar has said that this will facilitate contact tracing and prophylactic measures by strengthening surveillance and disease reporting systems.
‘Rabies is one of the zoonotic diseases recognized from old days. It has a high mortality rate and patients having a very painful death.’
The deadly disease is to be treated with timely and appropriate Post Exposure Prophylaxis treatment. Therefore, it is inevitable to declare rabies a notifiable disease, it reads.
Rabies in Karnataka
According to the WHO, rabies kills nearly 18,000 to 20,000 people in a year in India. Nearly 30 to 60 percent of the cases are found among children who are below the age of 15 years as bites that occur in children often go unrecognised and unreported.Low awareness of the need to seek healthcare after a dog bite claims the lives of more than 55,000 people each year. India is endemic for rabies, and accounts for 36 percent of the world's rabies deaths.
Source: IANS