Late Treatment, 11 Indonesians Bitten By Rabies Dogs Died

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) recorded 11 cases of death in Indonesia caused by rabies. The majority or as many as 95 percent of rabies cases were caused by dog bites.

95 percent of rabies cases in humans are obtained through the bite of infected dogs. There are also a variety of wild animals that act as virus reservoirs on various continents such asality, smoking, bats, and bats, but 95 percent because of dog bites," said Director of Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases at the Ministry of Health. Imran Pambudi in his statement, quoted on Sunday, June 4.

Imran said most of the rabies-related deaths were caused by being taken to health facilities late. They felt they were just a small bite and didn't die, so they came to the health facility already in severe condition, often it was over 1 month after being bitten.

"It means that when it's been a month, we don't know what the animals are like anymore, and on average they just panicked and went to the Health Facility after finding out the dog that bit them was dead. So what must be done if they are bitten by the first dog is that they must immediately go to the Health Facility for a wound test," he said.

As of April 2023, there have been 31,113 cases of animal bites that transmit rabies, 23,211 cases of bites that have received anti-rabies vaccines, and 11 deaths in Indonesia. Currently, 26 provinces are rabies endemic but only 11 provinces are rabies-free, namely Riau Islands, Bangka Belitung, DKI Jakarta, Central Java, DI Yogyakarta, East Java, West Papua, Papua, South Papua, Central Papua, and Papua Mountains.

In addition, many islands are rabies-free in Indonesia, for example in NTT there are rabies-free islands such as Sumba Island. There are also other islands including Tabuan Island and Pisang Island in Lampung, Meranti Island in Riau, Mentawai Islands in West Sumatra, Sintaro Islands in South Sulawesi, Nunukan Island, Batik Island, and Tarakan Island in North Kalimantan.

There are already two districts that have stated extraordinary events (KLB) rabies, namely Sikka Regency, NTT and South Central Timor Regency (TTS). The rabies situation in Indonesia from 2020 to April 2023, on average, per year there were 82,634 bite cases, then nearly 57,000 anti-rabies vaccines were given.

"Rabies is a big challenge in Indonesia because in the last three years the rabies animal bite case has averaged more than 80,000 cases a year and an average of 68 deaths," said Imran.

Furthermore, Imran emphasized that the main intervention for eliminating rabies in humans is to vaccinate their dogs. According to him, if these rabies-carrying animals are still roaming around and are not protected by vaccines, they can still transmit rabies to humans.

In 2023, the Ministry of Health has procured 241,700 vials of vaccine for humans and 1,650 vials of serum. Currently, the vaccine and serum have been distributed to provinces of almost 227,000 vials of vaccine and more than 1,550 vial serums. Actually, the vaccine that was held was the non-major buffer.

"In the regions they also hold their own rabies vaccines such as Bali. They have funds to buy anti-rabies vaccines, not only relying on the center, even in several districts in Bali they also have a budget for anti-rabies vaccines, both for animals and for humans," he concluded.