Dr. Gbene (in smock) with the media practitioners

 The United States Agen­cy for International Development (USAID) with Breakthrough Action in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service has organised a one day workshop on Rabies prevention, response and control risk communication for media personnel within the Sekondi-Takoradi Metrop­olis.

The training was intended to throw more light on the rising cases of rabies, proper risk communication and how the media could help in the dissemination of the right information to the general public.

Addressing the media, the Veterinary Doctor in charge of the Western and Western North regions, Dr. Simon Gbene disclosed that children were more vulnerable to rabid dogs because they liked pets and would always like to play with these pets notwith­standing the disease these dogs were carrying.

He said rabies transmis­sion was through scratches, the saliva or breathing orally in the case of entering a cave inhabited by many bats adding “bats carry rabies like dogs, cats, foxes and other animals.”

He said when someone got a bite from a rabid dog or cat it took four days to two years for the virus to come down depending on the volume and intensity of the virus and bite.

Dr. Gbene said a dog with rabies could bite and destroy about 100 birds within 10 days and the same applied to humans, too, because when the dog fully showed signs of rabies it would become so wild that any living thing that came its way would be bitten.

He said school children normally feared passing through areas where dogs were very common because of the barking or fear of be­ing bitten.

He said the World declared zero rabies bites worldwide from 2018 to 2030 and Ghana had not been able to imple­ment the campaign due to lack of stakeholder funding or sponsorship from foreign donors.

He said zoonotic diseases were diseases which were likely to attack both animals and humans, stressing that rabies was one of the zoonot­ic diseases, avian influenza also called bird flu, anthrax and sleeping sickness were all zoonotic diseases.

Dr. Gbene advised people even dog owners to desist from disturbing or trying to play with sleeping dogs, dogs taking their meals and those which had just littered because these classes of dogs were very aggressive and could bite their owners at the least provocation.

A representative of the USAID said the media had been earmarked as one of the major partners in the fight against the spread of rabies because they could collabo­rate with Ghana Health Ser­vice to disseminate informa­tion to the general public.

She said there was a very low awareness creation about rabies, low risk perception and low vaccination coverage for rabies.

 From Peter Gbambila, Sekondi