Stray dogs bite 80 in 3 months in Kunar

ASADABAD (Pajhwok): About 80 people have been bitten by stray dogs during the past three months in the capital and some districts of eastern Kunar province, public health officials say.

Public Health Director Asadullah Fazli told Pajhwok Afghan News that dogs involved in the attacks did not apparently carry rabies but they had administered anti-rabies vaccines to their victims.

He said they had used all the anti-rabies vaccine provided by the Ministry of Public Health and had no more in stock.

Fazl said dog bites could prove fatal and the availability of required vaccine was crucial to saving lives. A person with dog bites should be administered vaccines five times in 30 days, he said.

Hundreds of stray dogs have been killed so far in Asadabad and districts as part of a joint campaign by the municipality, police and the public health department, the official said. The public health director said he had no report if someone had died of dog bites.

A resident of Asadabad, Ziaul Haq, said his two cousins were hospitalised last week after being bitten by a stray dog.

He said a child was bitted by a dog in the Karhali area and was taken to Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, for treatment but he died there.

A resident of the Karhali area, Mohammad Saleh, said his daughter was bitten by a stray dog last month and when they took her to hospital, they were told the vaccine had fished. He then bought the vaccine from the bazaar.

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