<
https://www.npr.org/2024/07/12/nx-s1-5028577/rabies-dogs-vaccine-americas-africa-asia>
"A few years ago, as a first year doctor in the Philippines, Ricky Dann Marquez
had to pin a teenage patient’s hands to the hospital bed.
“It was terrible. It was terrible,” he says.
The worry was that the girl would thrash about, bite someone — or worse. “We
had to tie the patient to the bed so that she would not strangle anyone,”
Marquez says.
The girl’s mother informed Marquez that, a month ago, a stray dog bit her
daughter — and, recently, she’d started acting strangely. She was
uncontrollably aggressive and irrationally afraid of water.
She had rabies. The family did not know to seek out rabies shots for their
daughter immediately after the dog bite. If they had, she’d likely be just
fine. But now that she had symptoms, it was too late. There was nothing Marquez
could do. Rabies tops the list of the world’s deadliest diseases with a nearly
100% fatality rate if the person bitten does not get immediate treatment.
“Her mother was just watching her at the bedside, telling her that she loves
her,” Marquez recalls. “That was the most heartbreaking part when the mother
was telling her goodbyes to her daughter.”
Each year, about 60,000 families say goodbye to a relative dying from rabies.
And that number could be a “gross underestimate,” according to the World Health
Organization, since many cases go unreported.
The vast majority of the recorded cases — a whopping 95% — are in Asia or
Africa. The heaviest burden is borne by those living in poverty in rural areas,
where stray dogs roam and vaccines may not be readily available or may cost
more than people can afford to pay.
In Gabon, the four-dose regimen could run $25 per inoculation if the patient
doesn’t have insurance coverage, according to Dr. Annick Mondjo, deputy
coordinator for the country’s rabies elimination program. Plus, she says, the
vaccine must be kept cold and many far-flung communities don’t have the
necessary refrigeration.
As a result, she says, after a dog bite many families rely on hope — “hope that
the dog is not a rabid dog.”"
There is no rabies in Australia. It would be great if it could be eliminated on
other continents.
Via
Fix the News:
https://fixthenews.com/279-breakneck-solarisation/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
