Being bitten by a dog is associated with rabies until ruled out by the veterinary authorities and when a dog bit Janet Dimingu, she feared she would die.
The mother of three recalls how she was bitten by a neighbours’ dog on the night of December 15, 2015.
On that night, Dimingu of Nyathando village in Traditional Authority Ndamera in Nsanje was coming from a neighbour’s place where they had supper together.
“On my way home, a dog flew from a veranda of a neighbour’s house, charged at and bit me on the leg and on the hips throwing me on the ground down. The dog vanished soon afterwards,” says Dimingu.
Fear, she says, overwhelmed her when she was told that Ndamera Health Centre did not have rabies post-exposure prophylaxis vaccine.
She was referred to Nsanje District Hospital for assistance.
Considering the total number of dog bite cases recorded in Nsanje between June and August 2015, Dimingu’s story is not peculiar.
Data sourced from Nsanje District Agriculture Development office indicate that a total of 80 cases of dog bites were registered in a space of the three months, a development the officer responsible, Isaac Ali, describes as worrisome.
Up to 26 cases, he indicates, of dog bites are recorded on monthly bases in the district.
The situation at national level is equally a cause for concern.
In 2014 alone, according to Department of Animal Health and Livestock Development, a total of 10,777 dog and cat bite cases were reported from 6 out of the 8 Agricultural Development Divisions (ADDs) in Malawi.
And in Africa, the vaccine-preventable rabies kills 24,000 people a year most whom are children, according to experts, who attribute that rate of mortality to lack of access to vaccine.
Mission Rabies, an international nonprofit organisation dedicated to eliminating rabies worldwide by 2030, says rabies kills about 60,000 people every year, the majority of whom are children under the age of 15.
Global Alliance for Rabies Control describes rabies as “the deadliest disease on earth” considering its 99.9 percent fatality rate once symptoms show.
Patrick Chikungwa, Deputy Director for Animal Health and Livestock Development responsible for animal health research and disease investigations, says apart from pets, other animals can also transmit rabies.
“Cases have also been reported in cattle, goats, sheep and pigs. Hyenas and jackals are the commonly reported wildlife reservoirs. Others include monkeys and duiker,” he says.
Despite the situation, Ali indicates that his office is taking all the necessary measures to reduce the risk of the disease in the district.
“We embarked on a rabies vaccination drive recently in which close to 4,000 cats and dogs were targeted to ensure the virus is kept at bay,” he says.
Nsanje alone has an estimated 26,000 pets, meaning that the total number of the vaccinated pets is just a drop in an ocean.
Even Nicholas Phiso who owns the dog that bit Dimingu says during the vaccination exercise some dogs were left out including those from his village.
“My dog was vaccinated in 2014 but this time round [2015] the vaccines were very few to reach all the dogs in T/A Ndamera as well as Chimombo,” he says.
The World Health Organization (WHO) considers rabies to be a neglected disease and declares it to be primarily a problem in areas troubled with poverty and with a lack of economic resources.
Ali concedes that limited vaccines hinder the ability of his office to reach some areas.
“The fact that the excise was carried out is something that cannot be ignored in this case but the challenge was shortage of vaccines. We intend to target the remaining areas anytime we have access to the vaccines,” says Ali.
It has remained difficult to come up with a formal national plan for Dog Population in Malawi in an effort to deal with rabies.
But in 2008, WHO estimated the country’s dog population to be at one million.
Kholiwe Mkandawire, Chairperson of Malawi Veterinary Association, believes that laxity on the part of government to put in place proper veterinary structures is contributing heavily to increasing cases of rabies. This makes it difficult for the country to deal with the deadly virus, she says.
Mkandawire also says over the years funding from government has been inadequate and that 2015 was the worst in funding records.
“I know that other departments are equally suffering but on our part it’s more acute because the disease we deal with is contagious. This alone gives an outlook of the sensitivity of the issue,” says Mkandawire.
Mkandawire’s observation is supported by the fact that most of the rabies campaigns are left to the private sector.
In 2015 Henry Schein Partners signed a memorandum of understanding with Mission Rabies to donate health care products valued at more than $60,000 to support a dog vaccination campaign in Malawi.
Since its creation in September 2013, Mission Rabies has vaccinated more than 236,000 dogs across India, Malawi, Sri Lanka and Uganda. These countries are identified by the organisation as global rabies hotspots.
Mkandawire urged the government to at least support these private sector initiatives.
“The private sector is ready to step in but sometimes government’s protocol stops it to move in because of the bureaucracy which is involved. So I can only advise that government must agree that it cannot meet the cost, hence allowing a professional company to come in. It is also high time Malawians meet the cost of vaccinating pets,” argues Mkandawire.
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