Make refusal to vaccinate dogs punishable by law - MMDAs charged

Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) must make new by-laws or review existing ones so as to punish people who have not vaccinated their dogs.

The revised or new by laws which should lead to the arrest and prosecution of owners of such dogs would help control the spread of rabies, an Associate Professor of Veterinary Medicine, Richard D. Suu-Ire, has said, expressing worry that rabies was still endemic in the country.

“The disease is highly endemic here, and we have to take steps to stop it. If we do not fight hard, we are going to have a problem because the more it leaks into wildlife, then the control becomes impossible. Everybody must make sure that they get involved so that we eradicate this canker. It's very dangerous,” he said.

Professor Suu-Ire, who is the Dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Ghana, gave the advice in an interview with the Daily Graphic ahead of World Rabies Day, which would be observed on September 28, on the theme, Breaking Rabies Boundaries.

Rabies

Rabies is a deadly viral disease that can be transmitted from animals to humans through bites or scratches. The virus attacks the nervous system and causes death if not treated.

Ghana will observe this year’s celebration at Nsawam because it has been detected to be the most burdened area in the country. As part of the day, there would be free vaccination of dogs and visits to senior and junior high schools in the community to educate the students about rabies and what to do when bitten by a dog.

Documentation

In Ghana, Professor Suu-Ire said rabies had been documented to be found not only in dogs, although they have the highest number of cases, but also in pigs and other livestock.

He said an average of 20 documented cases of rabies in dogs was recorded every year, with most of the cases in rural areas.

However, the figure could be higher if people were reporting dog bites and deaths in humans to the hospitals, the Professor of Veterinary Medicine added.

“Reporting in the country is not accurate. In rural areas, especially, people are not able to send samples to the laboratory because they don’t have some there. There are very few laboratories that can do the diagnosis. So they end up not capturing all the cases involved.

Even the human laboratory, they use a veterinary laboratory for testing,’ he said. 

Vaccination

Professor Suu-Ire said a key to controlling rabies was the vaccination of dogs but unfortunately, he said many Ghanaian dog owners were not vaccinating their dogs and the MMDAs that were supposed to ensure that they did, were not applying the whip by impounding such dogs.

He said because people were not vaccinating their dogs, Ghana currently had a low vaccination rate for rabies, which was 15 per cent, explaining that for a country to attain a break in the transmission of rabies, according to  the World Health Organisation, it should have 70 per cent of its dogs vaccinated at a time for at least three or four years.

“If you have 70 per cent vaccination for four years, then rabies will naturally go. But at the percentage we are now, we are very low and that is why we are hoping that the government will be able to take the bold step to let us have a mass vaccination of dogs against rabies,” he said.

Prof. Suu-Ire explained that mass vaccination of dogs for rabies was not going on due to lack of funds, and pointed out that if we got funding to do so from donor agencies, it would go a long way to help.

He said the MMDAs could also help in fighting rabies by using part of their Common Fund to organise mass vaccination of dogs.

He further called on the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports to help in controlling rabies in the country because children, especially those below 18 years, were the worst affected.

Despite the low vaccination rate, Professor Suu-Ire said the country was slowly making progress with the fight against rabies, especially with its addition onto the One Health programme.

Tourism

Describing rabies as a major threat to Ghana, Professor Suu-Ire said it was a key hindrance in tourism, explaining that no meaningful tourists would like to visit a country to be bitten by a roaming dog that spreads rabies.