Tha Yang district in Phetchaburi declared rabies control zone

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Tha Yang district in Phetchaburi declared rabies control zone

By The Nation

 

After dead deer on a local farm tested positive to the rabies virus, the Livestock Development Office of Phetchaburi’s Tha Yang district declared three tambon in the district rabies control zones and began vaccinating pets within a three mile radius of the farm.
 

Somporn Kaewthavorn, chief livestock development officer of Tha Yang, said Friday that six villages in Tambon Tha Yang, four villages in Tambon Map Pla Khao, and two villages in Tambon Ban Nai Dong will be under rabies control measures until May 4. The measures took effect yesterday.

 

The measures were announced after a deer farm in Moo 5 village in Tambon Tha Yang of Tha Yang district found that 11 deer had been bitten and died on March 30.

 

When test results showed the deer had the rabies virus, the animals’ owner, his wife and a worker were given the rabies vaccine since they had come into contact with the infected deer.

 

The farm’s one dog and three cats also received the vaccine.

 

On Friday, officials started giving rabies shots to pets in a five-kilometre radius around the farm.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30342595

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-04-06

[Krataiboy]

What a relief it wasn't eleven children or adults bitten rather than those those luckless deer, as further proof emerges that the rabies epidemic is not under control but festering into something potentially far more catastrophic.

 

If the worst happens, the government and other responsible authorities, now going through the usual set of knee-jerk reactions to a crisis which has been brewing for years, have only themselves to blame.  They have constantly sidelined the rabies threat in favour of more politically "sexy" issues. 

 

Once again, the nation is reaping what its short-sighted political leaders have sown.

 

As in past, the latest outbreak of this terrible disease - invariably fatal if not treated quickly with the right medication - is being spread mainly by bites from the  "three or four million" stray dogs which roam the country.  The glaring vagueness of this official estimate speaks volumes for how seriously the canine carriers' role in the spread of infection is taken.

 

At least there are reliable figures for human deaths from rabies, mainly from dog bites, which have tripled in just three years. Last time I counted, no less than 42 provinces scattered across the country have been designated as "rabies prone".

 

My own province, Phetchaburi, has just made the hit-list, thanks to those eleven dead deer in the bustling town of Tha Yang (where, as luck would have it, I am due to extend my visa in a week or so). 

 

Where, one wonders, will the next rabies case pop up? Nobody knows for sure, least of all those charged with protecting public health and security. 

 

An editorial in the Bangkok Post last month urged the authorities to do more to limit the current outbreak and prevent others in the future. It criticised lax enforcement of laws designed to limit the spread of the disease, the lack of an effective public awareness campaign, and - inexplicably, in the circumstances - a shortage of anti-rabies vaccine. 

 

The article concluded, chillingly: "The rampant spread of rabies with the designation of 13 red zones proves that the state efforts in dealing with this disease are futile,."

 

Futile means pointless, a waste of time. It is definitely not the a description anyone wants to read in respect of measures being taken to protect us from a deadly virus spread by an unknown number of dogs and cats wandering our town, city and village streets.

 

Can the junta come up with a more reassuring one, please - and soon?

Edited April 6, 2018 by Krataiboy

[Stargeezr]

Yes, we all have to wait until a politician or relative of them dies or rabies, then

the program of ridding areas of soi dogs may start. Untlil then,  it is the,  Lets

vaccinate, program, and that's all. Folks!

Geezer