KUCHING, Oct 2 — Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah today said that the state government is in active discussion to engage experts from World Health Organisation (WHO) to help in the fight against the rabies outbreak here
“We are looking at what role they can play and in which areas, we need a helping hand in terms of experiences, expertise or manpower,” he told reporters after chairing the state disaster management committee.
“At the moment, we are trying to resolve the rabies outbreak ourselves, with the assistance from the federal Veterinary Department and the Sabah Veterinary Services Department,” he said.
Since the outbreak in June last year, 12 people have died, mostly in Serian Division where the outbreak started.
Uggah said since July 17 last year, over 10,000 dogs have been culled in Sarawak, including 4,671 in Kuching, 3,105 in Sibu, 1,099 in Miri, 599 in Samarahan and 103 in Serian.
He said authorities have vaccinated about 85,000 dogs in the state, including over 30,000 in Kuching, 20,000 in Samaharan and 6,800 in Sri Aman.
Uggah said about 15,000 dogs have also been vaccinated by private clinics to date.
“Our target is to vaccinate 70 per cent of the estimated 300,000 dog population in Sarawak,” he said.
He said the state health department has received 19,000 reports of people being bitten by dogs since last year.
Uggah defended the current measures being undertaken to curb the spread of the rabies against accusations by the people in social media that the state government is not serious in preventing the outbreak.
“They are implying that we are not serious, is a serious accusation. We are serious in trying to prevent the spread of rabies outbreak,” he said.
Uggah said the state government’s target is to eradicate the disease within two to three years.
Uggah said the state disaster committee has also been directed the national security committee to resume dialogue with the Indonesian authorities to curb the movement of dogs along the border areas.
