India has the highest number of deaths caused by rabies every year. The main source of this disease is dog bites. Despite huge number of deaths, there are not many hospitals that are dedicated to cure rabies patients. I am quoting from the report published in Hindustan Times:
Beware of stray dogs! An estimated 19,000 people die every year due to rabies in India, accounting for nearly 35 percent of such deaths worldwide.
According to data available with the World Health Organisation (WHO), nearly 55,000 people succumb to rabies mostly caused by dog bites. Of this, Asia accounts for 31,000 deaths.
The majority of the cases were reported from India followed by Bangladesh with about 2,000 deaths.
The global health watchdog also said that an estimated 10 million are treated each year after being bitten by dogs. Of this, 1.8 million receive the treatment in India alone.
According to H K Pandey, chief spokesman, World Health Organization (WHO), the number of stray dogs in India is higher compared to other countries and the government should vaccinate the dogs. India has only one anti rabies hospital, Maharishi Valmiki Infectious Diseases Hospital in Delhi. According to Rajender Singh, chief medical officer of Valmiki hospital, lack of awareness among physicians about this disease is the major problem. There are many physicians in the rural areas that do not know about this disease. Dog, cat, jackal, bat, camel and other warm blooded animal bites mainly cause this disease and if the patients are treated as soon as possible then, they would come around.
India may have been observing rapid economic growth but all the sectors of the country do not observe this growth and all the people do not enjoy the benefits of this economic growth. In India not all people have access to doctors and medical treatments. The country has already topped the charts in terms of the number of HIV infected people. Few months ago, Dengue caused havoc in the country. Now, here is another major disease spread by stray dogs. I hope Indian government takes necessary steps to protect its people from this deadly disease.
Related article:
Hindustan Times
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