Local News: Vet Warns of Rabies, Offers Free Vaccination
A private veterinarian here wants to contribute his share for a safer and rabies-free Bacolod as he offered free dog and cat vaccination on July 14.
In a television interview over Premier TV 14 ‘Pamilya kag Banwa,’ Dr. Dante Nick Ortiz said rabies remains a fatal disease, but is very much preventable.
Death due to rabies is unnecessary because the government offers free vaccination as he challenged Bacoleños to become responsible owners of their pets, he added. In 2011 the City Health Office Rabies Program Coordinator Gloria Parreño reported 3,138 dog bites, 336 from cats and 123 from rat, pig, rabbit and monkey bites. No deaths caused by rabies have been reported in the city since 2008.
According to Ortiz, a person bitten by a dog should immediately seek medical consultation because if rabies virus cross blood and brain barriers, the patient is doomed to die. He said a person can also get infected with virus if an open wound is licked by a dog as the saliva caries the virus. Dogs should receive anti-rabies vaccine once a year, he added.
Records from the Bacolod Veterinary Office showit has vaccinated 41,207 dogs last year and about 6,000 as of June this year. City dog population is approximately 49,000 in its 61 barangays. Ortiz said the vaccination on July 14, Saturday, will start at 9:00am and every Bacoleño is encouraged to bring their cats and dog-askal or foreing breed to his clinic, Zitro Vet, at Burgos-Lopez Jaena Sts., Bacolod City.
Although the vaccination is free, a very small amount as donation for the card tag bearing a veterinarian’s signature will be asked from clients.
Regular cost of animal vaccination here ranges from P100 to P150.*(PIA6-JCM/LOL)
