Syed Israr Shah, Mirza Azhar Beg, Muhammad Sajid Nadeem, Muhammad Fiaz, Amjad Rashid Kayani, Nosheen Rashid, Muhammad Irfan.
Occurrence of Rabies and Dog Bite in Rawalpindi District, Pakistan.
Ann Pak Inst Med Sci Jan ;12(3):136-41.

Background: Rabies is a viral disease of brain and central nervous system. Globally, 60,000 people die of rabies per year and for Pakistan, nobody knows exact figures. This is first study on occurrence of rabies and dog bite in different habitats of the Rawalpindi district, Pakistan. Materials and Methods: A questionnaire based survey was carried out from May, 2010 to December, 2012 in randomly selected three areas of the Rawalpindi city, three towns and 16 villages of the district. Data on dog bites was also collected from National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad, Pakistan. Results: A total of 1860 households were surveyed and only 19.13% (n=356) household respondents reported the human victims of rabies in the study area. Majority (n=316) of them reported dog as a vector of rabies. Only 955 respondents reported 1285 dogs rabid in the area and 547 households reported their livestock died of rabies. About 403 cows, 159 buffaloes, 111 goats and 64 donkeys were rabid in the area. Furthermore, 459 households reported male bias dog bites in the house members (n=332). After a dog bite, 24% people got spiritual treatments, 40% went to hospitals and 25% did the both while 11% did nothing. A total of 4666 dog bite cases were reported in NIH from 2005-2011. Conclusions: Numbers of rabies victim increased in the last decade and people in villages suffered from rabies more than people in city or town. The data revealed that dog bite cases increased in the area and dog bite cases recorded in NIH per year were underestimated as 35% of victims never went to hospitals and mostly depended on spiritual treatment only. A detail survey focusing the village areas is recommended to get reliable estimates of rabies in villages for control the rabies and better management of dog bite cases.

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com