Punjab’s tall claims about dog bites no more than an ‘eyewash’

ISLAMABAD: Against tall claims of the Punjab government to eliminate dog bite cases, the province has not bothered to file even a single case of dog bite during 2023.

Other provinces and regions, however, reported over 35,000 cases of dog bites, reveals statistics gathered by The News.

Sindh reported 17,911 dog bite cases, whereas Azad Jammu Kashmir reported 1,480, Balochistan 3,138, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 12,257, Gilgit-Baltistan nine and Islamabad federal capital territory reported only three cases in the year 2023, reveals the official data.

It is important to note that the cases that are reported are far less than the actual number of dog bites, according to health experts.

Punjab is believed to be the second highest province after Sindh that witnesses most dog bite cases all over Pakistan.

The News Investigation from all provinces revealed total number of dog bite cases that have occurred in Pakistan in 2023.

From April till December 2023, over 35,000 cases of dog bites were reported to the National Institute of Health, excluding Punjab that failed to provide any data.

The claims of Punjab for elimination of dog bite cases seems to be an eyewash. Punjab had chalked out a policy on paper - Dog Birth Control Policy 2021 - which was formulated with the objective to reduce stray dog population through neutering, reduce incidences of dog bites and rabies through vaccination and promote changes in human behaviours towards stray dogs by not killing them.

However, Punjab is the only province which seems carefree on the matter as the data regarding dog bite cases in Punjab is being shadowed and, on the other hand, officials concerned are also not ready to share any details or progress.

The National Institute of Health (NIH), in their weekly report on Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR), collect and report all dog bite cases occurred countrywide.

In Sindh, over 150,000 dog-bite cases had been reported in the year 2021 till date, noted a news report published earlier. Dr Naseem Sallahuddin, head of Department of Infectious Diseases in Indus Hospital, the chairperson of the Rabies-Free Pakistan campaign, and a member of the WHO team working against rabies, told this correspondent that there was a chaos-like situation due to dog bite cases in Sindh.

Punjab is the only province that never reported any dog bite case in 49 weekly IDSR reports for the year 2023.

In addition to this, Vice Chancellor of University of Veterinary and Secretary of Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) Masood Rabbani is front man for rabid dog and bite control program in Punjab.

This scribe has been writing to him for the past whole week to share progress and data of dog bite cases in Punjab, but he shared nothing stating that the information was hard to gather. The News has been reporting on the matter in the past and all information regarding Punjab big bite cases and dog vaccinations was provided by the said official to this scribe.

In the past, Prof Masood told The News that the total population of stray dogs in Punjab is over 460,000 which could cost the Punjab government around Rs350 million to vaccinate them.

Dr Naseem Sallahuddin told this correspondent that there was a chaos-like situation due to dog-bite cases in Sindh.

Dr Naseem said they started the Rabies-Free Pakistan campaign and got over 30,000 stray dogs vaccinated with over 3,500 dogs castrated. In addition, she said they also held training sessions for the local clinical staff regarding the post-exposure treatment and also tried to ensure steady supply of anti-rabies human vaccines in some areas.

However, she noted with grief that the dogs vaccinated through months of hard work were all killed by the government of Sindh in February.

She said only their department was treating hundreds of rabies patients on regular basis. Around 200 dog-bite cases occur only in Karachi daily, added Dr Naseem.

According to sources, Peshawar city is also working on a plan to vaccinate all stray dog, there is no plan to launch the project across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province yet.

The News was told that around 1,500 stray dogs were captured recently and vaccinated by the Livestock Department in Peshawar and 15,574 dog bite cases were reported in the first four months of the past year.