Penang government continues efforts to control rabies

The State Exco in charge of Health, Dr Afif Bahardin said a survey found that Penang still had about 25,000 neglected or wild dogs.

He said the state government was making efforts to provide the dogs with vaccine besides reducing their population by disposing of the dogs to control the spread of the disease.

"Operations to provide the vaccine and to catch and dispose of the wild dogs were actively being carried out to prevent bites that could lead to rabies infection," he told reporters here today.

He said that in the last three days, operations by the Veterinary Services Department had disposed of 182 wild dogs but the department still received reports of bites by wild dogs.

Dr Afif said that since Wednesday, 14 cases of humans having been bitten by wild dogs had been reported.

"I received eight reports of dog bites yesterday with two cases in the Seberang Perai North district, two cases in Seberang Perai South, three cases in the North-east district and one case in South-west.

"However, we could not catch the wild dogs concerned and could not test the samples to determine whether the dogs were infected with rabies or otherwise," he added.

He said dog owners could get their dogs vaccinated at the Veterinary Services Department for a fee of RM45 including the dog registration licence and so far, 167 dogs had been vaccinated.