Senator voices concern over deaths from rabies

Manila: A Senator said in a news briefing on Saturday that 115,223 Filipinos were bitten by dogs last year, about 316 cases a day or 13 per hour.

Senator Pia Cayetano, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, said that the Philippines ranks sixth in the world in the number of people who die of rabies, mostly from dog bites.

She said between 300 and 400 Filipinos die from rabies every year.

"Each one of us has an anecdote to tell about being terrorised, chased or even bitten by a neighbour's dog," said Cayetano. "But these grim figures are certainly not amusing and should be a cause of concern."

She hopes her committee will hear in the soonest possible time different proposed laws that could later be the basis for the creation of a National Rabies Prevention and Control Programme.

The Bureau of Animal Industry under the Department of Agriculture has allocated funds for the vaccination of an estimated eight million dogs in the country.

One of the proposals under study is the forcing of dog owners to register their dogs in their local government offices and vaccinate their dogs against rabies.