Budget release stalls

Dog vaccination drive

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Oct 3 (PIA) – The budget for the procurement of dog vaccines against rabies has not been released, stalling the important dog vaccination operations that could keep Bohol free from rabies again.

This information surfaced during the recent meeting of the Bohol anti-Rabies Council held last week at Cesars Place, CPG North, Tagbilaran City.

The Office of the Provincial Veterinarian (OPV) through Dr. Stella Marie Lapiz, DVM, said that they are allocating for the 14,000 vials with ten shots each for the 70% of Bohol’s dog population, which is now estimated to be about 200,000 heads.

And when these vaccines should have been used already in the province-wide simultaneous dog vaccination in the beginning quarter of the year, this year, the OPV is forced to use the balance of unused vaccines which were supposed to be inoculated to dogs to keep rabies at bay, last year.

Bohol’s dog vaccination program has also suffered in the past years, beginning with the lost vaccine allocation from the Department of Agriculture in 2019, according to Dr. Lapiz.

During that year, with 170,007 dogs in the OPV databank, the target was to inject to 119,005 dogs.

Singlehandedly sourcing out its own vaccines, Bohol, through the OPV distributed 63,770 doses but of these, only 55,448 dogs were vaccinated from rabies.

With the pandemic restrictions strictly implemented in Bohol, Barangay Livestock Aides and animal vaccination teams still were able to accomplish 33.20% vaccination rate. With the vaccination target pegged at 70%, 33.20% is not even half of the target.

The national government has targeted zero rabies in the country by 2020 and stopped its share of vaccines which it used to assist Bohol in its anti-rabies program.

Even then, Bohol was able to source out some 99,1000 doses, getting to 95,345 dogs for a 53.68 vaccination rate.

Last year, the dog population continued to grow, now reaching 190,753, where, with the presence of feral dogs or stray dogs that owners have no effective control, the target was to get to 133,527 of the dogs for their protection from rabies.

With the Provincial Government left holding an empty bag, it was forced to fund its own dog vaccination, and since 2021 when it singlehandedly purchased 10,000 vials of the vaccine for the 100,000 dog population, in 2022, PLGU 9,500 vials of the vaccine for at least 88,280 dogs of the 132,527 target for vaccination.

By the year-end, only 88,280 dogs were vaccinated, Bohol reaching a 46.26%; still way below the herd immunity target to make rabies insignificant.

With 190,753 number of dogs in its latest survey data, Bohol procured 9,500 vials for 95,000 dogs. Of those vials, only 89,970 doses were distributed, getting to 89,970 dogs.

This, according to the OPV is only 46.23% of the dog population.

Without a fresh data on dog population, the OPV pegged an estimated 200,000 dog population in Bohol, and intended to get to 140,000 for vaccination to attain the immunity as aimed.

The office then proposed for the procurement of 9,500 vials with a total of 95,000 doses and acquired some 4,500 vials from the City Veterinary Office, which would again be enough for another 45,000 shots.

However, with a dying eagerness to pick up the vaccination anew, OPV reports that it has distributed 35,110 doses of the vaccines to the Municipal Agricultural Officers and only 9,077 dogs have been reportedly vaccinated.

The office is still waiting for the reports of the vaccine utilization, but to date, the figures are alarming.

According to authorities, since 2019, there have been 25 animal bite cases, over half of these are involving kids below 15 years old, mostly males, and of the more serious bites, according to nurse Polizena Rances.

In 2022 alone, Bohol records five cases of rabies traced in humans.

While rabies can be preventable through dog vaccination and early treatment, rabies, when in its in its late stage in humans causes coma and certain death. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

TOO LATE FOR NOW. With the dog vaccination set in the first quarter of the year and with the vaccines not delivered yet, Boholanos may still wait until the 2023 vaccines are available, Dr Stella Marie Lapiz said. With that, and with the barangay elections looming, a simultaneous dog vaccination operation may not start, until a new set of barangay officials are elected. This saddens Board Members Lucille Lagunay and Romulo Cepedoza, who intends to rally the barangay chairs to back the anti-rabies drive. Cepedoza is the Liga ng mga Barangay president. (PIABohol)