FG Distributes Anti-Rabies Vaccines to 9 Faculties of Veterinary Medicine

The Federal Ministry of Health has handed out 1,812 anti rabies vaccines to nine accredited faculties and colleges of veterinary medicine in the country.

Director of Neglected Tropical Disease in the ministry, Mrs Ifeoma Anagbogu, said the Federal Government was committed to the fight against the disease.

According to her, the release of the free vaccines to beneficiary institutions is coming as a result of request by the Veterinary Council of Nigeria to ensure that all clinical veterinary students are vaccinated against the disease.

“We did not hesitate to make the vaccines available because the veterinarians are always at the forefront of the prevention and control of the virus, although, the disease has not been reported in Africa countries but the World Health Organisation (WHO) has recently given a red alert on the disease.” she said.

Anagbogu bemoaned that some people go as far as sleeping with these animals in the same bed, which apparently is dangerous.

“Every case of dog bite should henceforth be reported to the nearest hospital or relevant authorities for quick action at all you must keep these animals for whatsoever reason, you must ensure that they are properly taken care of and up to date on their vaccine.” she advised.

“Development Partners have showed interest in working with us towards eradicating the disease through creating more awareness to Nigerians, ” she added.

She said that rabies is a viral disease that causes acute inflammation of the brain in human, adding that domestic animals such as dogs, cats, cattle and bats transfer the virus to human through bites and scratches.