Rabies is a global problem that causes the deaths of thousands of people and dogs. In India alone, every two seconds someone is bitten by a dog, around 24 people a day suffer an excruciating death from rabies:over half of them are children.
India is the country with the biggest rabies problem, with 20000 people dying every year. So-called "street dogs" are part of the urban culture. They play an important role in the ecosystem by helping to deal with garbage: in areas where dogs have been forcibly removed, the urban rat population has become a major problem. But street dogs also carry rabies.
Pete Wedderburn, also known as "Pete the Vet" in Ireland, is travelling out to India next week with the Irish contingent to visit ASHA. He will be visiting the Mayapuri slum in Delhi. His aim is to carry out a dog census and rabies review of the area, using observation and a questionnaire.
We hope that his efforts may be the first step to dogs in the Mayapuri slum eventually being vaccinated, and in due course, when a boy or girl is bitten by a dog, they will not be infected with rabies. That one child may seem insignificant in the statistics, but to them, the difference will be massive. And if other people take action to help to work towards the eradication of rabies in India, tens of thousands of other children will also be protected against this terrible disease.
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