By Hou Akot Hou
Northern Bahr El Ghazal State Ministry of Animal Resources, Fisheries, and Tourism has started immunizing dogs against rabies in Aweil.
The 7-day campaign came in a bid to control the number of rabies-related deaths that have been happening in the communities due to rabies-infected dog bites.
Samuel Ajing Uguak, the Director General at the State Ministry of Animal Resources, said on Tuesday that they commenced the exercise on the day to mark the fight against rabies.
The vice president of the Service Cluster, Hussein Abdelbagi Akol and the state governor Tong Aken Ngor attended the Day of Rabies.
He underscored the need to have every pet at home immunized, saying it is more profound to take this opportunity into account.
“There is a need to have every pet, particularly the dog, immunized so that whenever they bite humans, they cannot transmit rabies, leading to death”.
Uguak stated that the day of November 8 is scheduled as the day to substitute September 28, which is used globally to mark the day of the fight against rabies.
The Director General underlined that if dogs are not immunized, then people will be susceptible to death when stray dogs bite people at random.
“We are only targeting the dogs with their rightful owners, and on November 8, 2023, it will prevent people from succumbing to death easily since they are immunized,” said DG Uguak.
He noted that reports that have been shared with the National Ministry of Health regarding rabies-related deaths show that stray dogs have contributed to the loss of lives.
He said the Ministry of Animal Resources and Health Partners in Juba has gone down to the state to celebrate the day with the launch of a free dog immunization.
The representative of the health partner organization known as One Health sent its secretary, Mr. Peter Kaye Tut, to Aweil for the occasion.
Speaking at the event, Tut said they were obliged on a mission for a celebration of International Day to fight against rabies and took dog vaccines to prevent rabies disease, which he described as communicable.
“This celebration, coupled with the free immunization of dogs at Aweil Freedom Square, will be very helpful, and we would like to extend this free service of dogs’ immunization to the six centers across the state that are positioned in the counties,” he said.
“Kindly cooperate with the community veterinary officers who are doing their work free of charge within the next seven days,” Tut told the locals.
One Health Organization is working in collaboration with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Ministry of Health to see to it that the dog bite, which is one of the leading causes of deaths among humans, is contained.