AT LEAST four of the 20 people that have died from rabies since its outbreak in 2017 are “needless deaths”, Deputy Chief Minister Douglas Uggah said today.

According to Uggah, if only these people had taken advice to go to the animal bite clinic, “they could have lived”.

Uggah – who also chairs the state disaster management committee that spearheads the rabies fight in Sarawak – said these victims died for brushing off “minor bites” instead of seeking treatment at the nearest government hospital or clinic.

One needless death, Uggah said, was when a doctor failed to inform his patient to follow up on his dog bite wound at Sarawak General Hospital animal bite clinic.

The doctor is under investigation for negligence, for which Uggah said he is still awaiting the report.

Uggah said Sarawak’s target is to be rabies free by 2025, with no rabies deaths between now and the end of 2021.

However, he said the Sarawak cabinet was “shocked” when the health ministry in July 2017 confirmed that two siblings had died of rabies, adding the state was taken off guard by the news.

Uggah said state leaders never expected the news due to the insular nature of Borneo and the measures the state had taken for years to ward off deadly livestock diseases like foot and mouth disease and African swine fever.

“Our thinking then was: ‘rabies only happened in other countries’.

“We didn’t believe it would come to Sarawak.”

Panic began to set in with positive cases reported in Sibu and Mukah in central Sarawak, and Miri in the northern part of the state, after authorities failed to contain the spread to within the Kuching and Serian divisions, Uggah said.

One of the hurdles authorities faced was the culture regarding treatment of pet dogs, Uggah said, adding in longhouses, dogs are considered part of the family and each family could own a pack of canines because are also used in hunting.

These dogs are never confined and run free, increasing their exposure to infected dogs.

“So, experiences of authorities in Penang and Kedah could not be used in Sarawak.”

Uggah said the state is now in the last of its “sweeping vaccination campaign” covering the Miri and Limbang divisions, having started on March 1.

Limbang is the only area of the state that is rabies free.

He said, if the authorities could vaccinate 70% of the state’s estimated 220,000 dogs by the end of this year, Sarawak could well be on the road to achieve its target to be rabies free by 2025.

He estimated that 65% dogs have been vaccinated to date. – October 26, 2019.