FOUR more rabid dogs have been discovered in Sarawak as the state struggles to contain the spread of the disease which re-emerged at the end of last year.

Two of the dogs were found in the new rabies epidemic area of Julau in central Sarawak, and the others in the former gold mining town of Bau – the centre of the outbreak in southern Sarawak, the state disaster management centre announced today.

Bau is about 47km from Kuching.

One of the dogs which tested rabies-positive in Julau is a “wild dog” snared at Entabai and the other a stray captured at the Rumah Paing Anak Tawi longhouse for testing.

In Bau, one of the rabid dogs is a stray at Pasar Tondong that was captured after it bit someone, and the second dog, also a stray which had bitten someone, was rounded up near SJKC Chung Hua in Rantau Panjang.

Julau was the 27th area in the state to be declared rabies infected on January 2 after a dog there tested positive on December 29.

Since the outbreak, 67 dogs and six cats have tested positive for rabies while over 42,000 pet dogs and cats have been vaccinated against the disease.

Five people, four of them children, two of whom were siblings, have died from the disease since the outbreak in Serian district in July last year. – January 8, 2018.