Thousands Of Rabies Cases Hit West Kalimantan, Governor Asks Local Government To Allocate Handling Budget

Officers gave anti-rabies vaccine injections to residents' pets in NTT. (Between-Fransiska Mariana Nuka)

West Kalimantan (West Kalimantan) Governor Sutarmidji asked every local government (Pemda) to allocate a special budget for dealing with rabies.

"To optimize the prevention of rabies disease in West Kalimantan Province, it is necessary to make several efforts, including providing a special budget allocation for prevention," he said at the opening of a coordination meeting on the prevention of rabies disease in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Wednesday, June 14, which was confiscated by Antara.,

He added, in addition to budgeting, it is necessary to increase coordination, synergy, and commitment from district/city governments and inter-related agencies in terms of dealing with rabies disease in their respective regions.

"It is necessary to evaluate the rabies prevention efforts that have been carried out so far, especially the follow-up evaluation so that the rabies prevention program becomes more effective and useful," he said.

No less important, his party continues to carry out socialization or communication, education and information intensively through various media and is implemented in a programmated, integrated and continuous manner so as to create an active role of the community in efforts to prevent, control and release rabies disease.

"Currently, the West Kalimantan Provincial Government continues to intensively educate and vaccinate rabies, there are pets," he said.

According to him, the public should pay attention to the symptoms of pets affected by rabies such as dogs being aggressive, fierce, excessive saliva, fear of sunlight and others.

If you are bitten, wash it immediately with clean water for 15 minutes, then make sure to take blood samples for laboratory tests. Must be treated quickly.

"I hope there are no pets like dogs roaming the crowd," said Sutarmidji.

Regarding the rabies disease case in West Kalimantan Province, so far there are 1,775 residents who have been bitten by rabies-contagious animals and 11 of them have died.

For vaccination alone in West Kalimantan, as many as 22,600 doses of rabies vaccine have been distributed in West Kalimantan as a real effort to prevent and control the rabies virus which is transmitted through the bite of dogs, cats and others.