Rafique Aziz
Aurangabad, Sept 2:
If all goes well, the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) is hoping to celebrate 2021-22 as the year free from rabies death. In the current year, 587 patients from different localities of the city were reported as rabies-infected (between April 1 to August), but all of them recovered and no soul has succumbed to the infection. The animal husbandry officials claimed that the sterilisation of stray dogs will help in reducing the ratio of patients as well as deaths, in future.
According to AMC sources, " There were 15 deaths due to rabies in 2013-14 and eight in
2016-17. The garbage and stray dogs menace were two hot topics in the city during 2016-17. The spreading of garbage on every nook and corner of the important roads had become a haven for stray dogs. The AMC was unable to undertake a sterilisation programme from 2013-16 due to some technical issues with the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI). The programme was aggressively undertaken by AMC since 2019-20. The civic body focussed purely on controlling the reproduction cycle of stray dogs through it. This started to emerge results. There were one death
in 2019-20 and three in 2020-21 due to rabies infection."
The AMC's livestock supervisor and in charge of dog unit, Shaikh Shahed said, " I am in touch with the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) for updates on the admission of rabies patients and deaths. I came to know that one woman from Gangapur (not from the city) died of rabies on Sunday. As per record, 4,539 rabies-infected patients were reported in 2019-20, 5,815 in 2020-21 and 587 in 2021-22 (till August). I am glad that no soul from the city has been
departed due to rabies infection since April 2021."
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50 pc stray dogs sterilised in 3 years
The present population of stray dogs would be around 35,000 in the city. Of which, the AMC
has sterilised 20,293 in last three years. It includes 4,534 in 2019-20, 10,681 in 2020-21 and 5,078 in 2021-22 (till July). Daily 50 stray dogs were sterilised and after keeping them in observation for a certain period in canine we were dropping them at the place from where there were picked up. We hired the services of various agencies for sterilisation including Blue Cross Society (Pune). The sterilisation will help to reduce rabies-infected patients and deaths in future. Meanwhile, the citizens should also take individual precautionary measures and avoid conflict with stray dogs and untoward incidents stressed Shaikh.