Already Forming A Task Force, BNPB Targets 3 Months To Handle Rabies Outbreak In NTT

Screenshot of the Head of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) Lieutenant General TNI Suharyanto in the 2023 Disaster Kaleidoscope and 2024 Disaster Outlook in Jakarta, Friday (12/1/2024). (ANTARA/Astrid Faidlatul Habibah)

JAKARTA - The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) targets three months to handle the spread of the rabies virus outbreak in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT). Head of BNPB Lt. Gen. Suharyanto said that his party had formed a Rabies task force (Satgas) at the end of 2023. "We are targeting three months. January, February, and March, this can be completed. So it is not the person who is treated, who is bitten, but the animal who is vaccinated," he said at the online event of the BNPB Kaleidoscope followed online in Jakarta, Antara, Friday, January 12. Suharyanto said the rabies vaccine injection would be carried out on healthy dogs. He revealed, in two districts in NTT, 12 people have been bitten by a dog infected with rabies. "So that BNPB is ordered to handle, maybe because BNPB has experience in dealing with COVID-19, dealing with mouth and nail disease, and Alhamdulillah it can be overcome," said Suharyanto. He said that the three-month target could be extended to six months if it was deemed insufficient to suppress the spread of rabies. Anticipation of rabies control has been carried out in early 2024 in NTT. Previously, the East Nusa Tenggara Provincial Health and Civil Registration Office noted that until October 2023 children under the age of 15 were mostly victims of rabies dog bites which led to death. “ Of the 29 people who died from dog bites, 17 were children and the rest were adults,” said the Head of the NTT Provincial Health and Civil Registration Office, Ruth D. Laiskodat.

He explained that children who died were ranging from 3.5 years to 10 years old and also 15 years old.