Some Rabies cases reported in the Newspapers of Sri lanka

[Guest guest]

>In January 2004 a dog belonged to Mr Munasinghe who lives at

>no5,Pitiyagedara Bemmulla was immunised with the rabies injection which was

>injected during the antirabies campaign organised by the Health Department.

>The dog developed rabies symptoms on the 1st of July 2004 and it attacked

>the dogs in the neighbourhood and that dog and all the dogs which were

>bitten were destroyed.

>How can this happen ?

 

There are several ways that this can happen.

 

In tropical climates, the most common way is that the

vaccine dose was not kept properly refrigerated. Sometimes the

problem involves an entire batch of vaccine, as in the case of a

power failure that stops a refrigerator. In other cases, only one

or two vaccine doses overheat, for example when left outside of a

refrigerator during an interruption at a vaccination clinic. The

rest of the batch will be good, but the overheated doses will fail.

 

Sometimes a syringe is not properly loaded with the vaccine dose.

 

Sometimes a vaccine dose is not properly injected.

 

Some cases are on record of corrupt individuals stealing and

selling proper vaccines, substituting placebos, which have no

protective value.

 

It is not likely that a dog who developed furious rabies on

July 1 was already infected as early as January--but this may be in

the outer range of probability.

 

-- Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

 

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