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Report dog bites and scratches
Some children brought their pets for vaccination against rabies during the World Rabies Day celebrated on Monday, September 28, this year at Lawra in the Upper West region.

Report dog bites and scratches

Children who do not report dog bites and scratches risk contracting rabies if the dogs have the virus, a Wildlife Veterinary Specialist, Dr Richard Suu-Ire, has said.


 He explained that the virus normally entered the body of people through cuts, bites, scratches as well as the mouth and eyes when the infected dog sprayed saliva into them and when that happened and prompt medical attention was not given, the victim could contract rabies.

Dr Suu-Ire, who is also a lecturer at the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Ghana, Legon, said: “That is why it is important for children to report dog bites and scratches.

Unfortunately, most children do not report them and if they don’t, it places them at a high risk of getting rabies if the dogs have the virus”.

In an interview to mark World Rabies Day which was observed on September 28, he described rabies as a dangerous disease which resulted in death that was so agonising and dehumanising that the dead person’s relatives would never want to recount and that was why it was important for children to prevent themselves from getting it.

“Before a child or anybody dies of rabies, they bark like a dog and have to be chained to a hospital bed to prevent them from biting another human being.

They will also be put in a darkroom in the hospital or have their eyes covered to prevent them from seeing light because that stimulates their reflexes which makes them shake aggressively.

Finally, they have to be anaesthetised so that they relapse and die,” he stated. He said unfortunately in Ghana and the world over, cases of rabies in children were high.

“In Ghana about 40 per cent of rabies deaths recorded each year involves children.

In 2012, Ghana recorded 18 such deaths. In the 2000s, the country was recording about 40 cases of rabies deaths each year.

These figures are only reported cases. Many more cases are not reported in the country.

The World Health Organisation says about 40 per cent of victims of rabies are younger than 15 years.”

What is rabies?

Dr Suu-Ire described rabies as a disease caused by a very small germ-virus that could not be seen with the eye nor with an ordinary microscope.

He explained that once the virus entered the cut, it looked for the nerves around that area and gradually climbed through it to the brain where it multiplied and destroyed the brain and the whole human system.

From the brain, he said, the virus spread to the other organs and tissues of the body, destroying the whole central nervous system.

“That is why the person who gets the virus has hallucinations, gets mad and barks like a dog. At this stage, nothing can be done to save the child or person.

There is no treatment for rabies. We only vaccinate and the child’s own immune system will produce antibodies that will fight the virus,” he pointed out.

He said the virus normally took between a day to one year to manifest but on the average,14 days was the incubation period.

What to do when bitten by a dog

On what children and adults should do for children bitten by dogs, he said, they should immediately wash the affected area with soap under running water for at least 15 minutes and apply any antiseptic on the area before rushing the child to hospital.

“Don’t just get up and start running to take the child to the hospital. Wash the area and apply the antiseptic before you do so.

Vaccination

Dr Suu-Ire said depending on how close the bite was to the brain, doctors would determine the load of vaccine to give to the affected child, explaining that when the bite was close to the brain, the child needed serious attention, otherwise the virus would travel quickly to the brain.

He said in Ghana, people bitten by dogs were expected to be given five vaccines - the first three vaccinations were supposed to provide protection against rabies while the last two were for treatment if there was rabies.

“So you cannot stop halfway. It is not good to take some of the vaccines and leave some. You have done nothing to your system if you do that. You have to take all the five,” he advised.

What to do to avoid dog bites

Dr Suu-Ire advised children not to play with strange dogs.

He said they should also not try to separate fighting dogs and leave them alone when they were eating or sleeping, otherwise they could hurt them.

Dr Suu-Ire advised that parents should teach children how to avoid dog bites, keep dogs in their kernel, never leave a child alone with a dog, select the right pets for their children and ensure that they vaccinate their dogs every year.

He expressed concern that most dog owners in the country did not vaccinate the animals against rabies, adding that they should because that was the best way to preserve human life.

A victim of dog bite

Fifteen-year-old Efua Akyere of Oshiyie, who was bitten by a stray dog a year ago while she was returning home from school, said at the time, she was walking with her friends when the dog started chasing and barking after them.

They, therefore, started to run but unfortunately, she said, she fell and so the dog attacked and bit her left thigh.

“I was taken to the hospital and I was given injections for three weeks. Because of this I am afraid of dogs now.”

Dog owner

Ms Cecilia Arthur was an owner of three different kinds of dogs.

She said that her first dog got missing but for the other two, she killed them because they started behaving abnormally.

She said one of them attacked and bit a child for which reason she had to have the dog killed while she paid for vaccination for the child.

Asked whether she consulted a veterinary doctor before killing the dogs, she said no.

On whether she had vaccinated any of her dogs, she answered in the negative but added that she would do that when she bought a new one because of what happened to her previous dogs.

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