KZN acts to prevent rabies
Suspected case near Umlazi spurs move to round up unvaccinated pets
KWAZULU- NATAL authorities are planning to band together to seek a court order that would permit them to search homes for unvaccinated pets and impound and destroy sick animals.
The hospitalisation of another rabies victim has spurred five provincial departments to lend their support for the court action.
This was confirmed by MEC for the Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs, Meshack Radebe, yesterday.
He was speaking at a press briefing at Umlazi’s Prince Mshiyeni Hospital yesterday, where he had been visiting a four-year-old child who doctors believe has contracted rabies.
Radebe said he would take action and would be joined by Health MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo, MEC for the Department of community Safety and Liaison Willie Mchunu, Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Nomusa Dube and Finance MEC Ina Cronje.
“We are engaging with amakhosi, mayors and councillors to assist us…We have lost three lives (one in the same area) in KZN since April, so we need to drive home the point that the virus is deadly,” said Radebe.
Also at the hospital was the mother of the four-year-old, who recalled how her son had begun hallucinating, had little energy and refused to eat.
“I did not understand the child’s symptoms, so I took him to the doctor,” said the woman, who was not named to protect the identity of the child.
The doctor, she said, had treated the boy, but he became sicker.
“I could see that there was something not right,” she said.
The mother had taken the boy back to the doctor, where he performed further tests.
The child, from Ngonyameni outside Umlazi, was then admitted to Prince Mshiyeni Hospital in Umlazi at the end of May.
The doctor who treated the child at the hospital, Dr Akhtar Hussein, said that clinically he and his team had come to the conclusion that the child had been infected with the virus, but laboratory tests had, thus far, failed to confirm this.
“The biopsy of the dog that had bitten him came back positive for the virus, and his symptoms lead us to believe that he has rabies,” he said.
He said that only a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test was accurate enough to find out if the child had contracted the virus – they would be performing these tests soon.
“We have done a CT (computed tomography) scan and an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and found that the brain had changed, but we do not know to what extent, as the child is comatose,” he said.
He said that he would not call the child’s situation unusual, as the survival period after infection (if the child had rabies) varied from person to person.
He said people needed to seek out medical treatment as soon as they had been bitten by an animal – usually, if treated immediately, the rabies infection was preventable.
State veterinarian, Dr Themba Sikhakhane, confirmed that since the start of the vaccination programme, 45 dogs in the province had tested positive for the virus.
Radebe said that nearly 25 000 dogs had been vaccinated in the Uthungulu area, 11 000 in Okahlamba, and 9 999 in the greater Umlazi area.
“Twelve new vaccinators have been trained in eThekwini and 25 more volunteers are also being trained,” he said.