<i>New vaccine to treat people suffering from dog bite</i>
From now on the modern and widely used cell culture vaccine will be used to treat the patients suffering from dog bite instead of the obsolete nerve tissue vaccine.
Patients will receive the post exposure treatment of rabies free of cost under the rabies control programme of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
At a press conference at the Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH) Director (disease control) of the DGHS Dr Moazzem Hossain said that the Institute of Public Health had been manufacturing the nerve tissue vaccine despite the warning of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The tissue culture vaccine, which needs only four doses in 28 days, is safe, effective and less expensive. But the nerve tissue vaccine takes 14 doses, he said.
"Rabies causes death to one person every ten minutes across the globe. In Bangladesh, an estimated 2000 people die of rabies and 85 percent of them live in villages," said Dr Jagodish Chandra Ghosh, senior consultant of IDH.
Rabies is a virus that is usually transmitted by a bite from an infected animal, such as dog, cat, monkey, bat or fox. If a bite from a rabid animal goes untreated and an infection develops, it is almost always fatal.
To control the disease and to expand the service the health ministry in collaboration with the Livestock ministry and LGRD ministry has taken a programme. A national guideline has already prepared in this regard and training of the nurses and doctors have begun since July 11 to administer the vaccine properly, the speakers said.
The programme will be expanded to divisional and district level gradually, they said adding that under the Health Nutrition and Population Sector Programme (HNPSP) some 1800 vials of cell culture vaccine have already been procured.
Among others Dr Ziauddin Ahmed, chairman of Rabies in Asia Foundation Bangladesh, Dr Bariul Islam, programme manager of Disease Control Unit, Dr Tania Bulbul of Bangladesh Anti-Rabies Alliance were also present.
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