Beware of pets
A Wildlife Veterinary Specialist, Dr Richard Suu-Ire, has stressed the need for children to be educated on zoonotic diseases.
This, he explained, would help them to know about those diseases and how to behave around those
animals that carry them so that they do not contract them.
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Zoonotic diseases or zoonoses are illnesses that originate from animals and are passed on to humans either through a bite, scratch, eating the meat of a contaminated animal or drinking their milk.
Examples of such diseases are rabies, anthrax, tuberculosis, COVID-19 and Ebola. Ghana has seven zoonotic diseases that have been described as prioritised diseases because of their high impact on human and animal health.
“If children are educated about zoonotic diseases, they would know what to do when for instance they are bitten by dogs and where to go,” he stated.
Dr Suu-Ire, who was speaking in an interview with the Junior Graphic as part of World Veterinary Day observed on April 24 said, the lack of education about zoonotic diseases among children and the fact that they were not taught in detail in schools pose a challenge because a lot of people, including children, were not aware of them.
As a result, when they contract those diseases, they don’t realise they got them from animals.
Unfortunately, he said, children were the most vulnerable when it comes to zoonotic diseases because they play around with and take care of pets such as dogs, cats, chicken, goats, sheep and other domestic and wild animals at home.
He, therefore, called for zoonotic diseases to be made a standalone course in the curricula of basic schools, adding that at the moment in the country, a few of these diseases, such as rabies, are treated under Agricultural Science and General Science in basic schools but they were not broad enough.
Dr Suu-Ire, who is also a lecturer at the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Ghana, Legon, said when children receive such education in school, they would know they were not supposed to take raw milk from animals or eat meat from dead and sick animals because they would get infected if the animal has a zoonotic disease.
Again, he said, children would know how to handle animals they considered their pets and how to behave around those animals so they avoid getting the diseases they carry.
Dr Suu-Ire advised that because of the danger dead animals pose in transferring diseases to humans, it was important that children protect themselves before they handle any dead animal and they should also wash their hands after handling them.
‘You should not eat the meat of dead and sick animals because if they have any zoonotic disease, they are likely to transmit it to you.
A dead animal should be properly disposed of to prevent other animals from eating their meat and getting infected with diseases which they were likely to transmit to humans.
Any animal suspected of having been infected with a disease should be reported to the appropriate quarters such as veterinary offices, environmental officers or the district assemblies,” he noted.
World Veterinary Day was initiated by the World Veterinary Association (WVA) in 2000 in order to celebrate the veterinary profession annually on the last Saturday of April.
The objective is to bring the importance of the Veterinary Profession to the society as well as individuals in focus.
This year’s day was observed on the theme: “Veterinarian response to the COVID-19 crisis.”
