CL marks Rabies Awareness Month amid reports of 200,000 bite cases

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — The Department of Health (DOH) here has reported that animal bites, mostly involving dogs, have been significantly increasing in the last 10 years, from about 15,000 in 2006 to almost 200,000 as of last December.

Marking Rabies Awareness Month, the DOH office for Central Luzon released a report indicating Pampanga had the most number of animal bites cases at 37,558 in the last 10 years.

“Dogs remain the principal cause of animal bites and rabies cases,” the report said, noting that all over the country, 74.9 percent of bite cases involved dogs, 20.4 percent involved cats, and 4.7 percent involved other animals.

In Central Luzon, Bulacan was second in the number of bite cases at 29,221, followed by Nueva Ecija with 16,864 cases, Tarlac with 11,339 cases, Bataan with 11,205 cases, Zambales with 6, 055 cases and Aurora with 2,206 cases.

The report noted that Central Luzon is the sixth region in the country with the most number of human rabies mostly arising from dog bites. The most rabies cases were in Region 1 followed by Region 5, Caraga Region, Region 2 and Region 11.

In terms of human rabies in Central Luzon, the trend went d0wn from 44 cases in 2010 to only 30 last year.