Dog bite cases surge in Hyderabad and Telangana districts
Telangana records nearly 300 dog bites a day, with 3.4 lakh cases in three years. Experts warn of untreated trauma, especially in children, making it a public health emergency.
Hyderabad: While the debate between residents and animal welfare organizations over stray dogs in Hyderabad rages on, the public in the city and districts is grappling with a far more urgent crisis, a public health emergency triggered by spate of dog bites that has gone largely unaddressed by the health department.
According to various reports and sources, the entire State of Telangana witnesses close to 300 dog bites per day. The GHMC area itself, including core Hyderabad and neighbouring districts, account for nearly 100 dog bites per day, a clear indication of the scale of the crisis.
In the past three years alone, Telangana has reported approximately 3.4 lakh dog bites, based on the statistical data available with the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) and National Rabies Control Program (NRCP).
“The number of dog bites in the GHMC area per day could be more because a majority of the dog bite victims go to private health facilities for the rabies vaccine and treatment. There is no system in place where information on dog bites is shared by private health care facilities with the State health department,” a senior immunologist from Hyderabad, familiar with the issue, said.
With most dog bite victims being children, a majority of them are left with a childhood trauma that they are ill-equipped to deal with. All through their entire lives, such individuals live with Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) silently, with no concerted support from State-run health care facilities.
“About 60 to 70 percent of the dog bite victims can cope with the mental trauma of being attacked by an animal. The rest, however, suffer from PTSD silently. They are not even aware that mental health specialists can provide the support so that they don’t have to deal with a life-long phobia of being attacked by animals,” laments senior government psychiatrist Dr Vishal Akula.