Under the Karnataka Epidemic Disease Act, rabies is now declared a notifiable disease. The Karnataka government aims to completely eliminate rabies by 2030.
Karnataka State Health Minister K. Sudhakar has said this will facilitate contact tracing and prophylactic measures by strengthening disease surveillance and reporting systems.
Fatal disease should be treated with timely and appropriate post-exposure prophylaxis treatment. Therefore, it is inevitable to declare rabies as a notifiable disease, the statement read.
rabies in karnataka
According to the WHO, rabies kills nearly 18,000 to 20,000 people in a year in India. Nearly 30 to 60 percent of cases are among children under the age of 15, as bites that occur in children often go unrecognized and unreported.
Low awareness of the need to seek medical attention after a dog bite claims the lives of more than 55,000 people each year. India is endemic for rabies, accounting for 36 percent of the world’s rabies deaths.
Source: IANS
