The Antipolo City Veterinary Office (CVO) and City Health Office (CHO) were recognized by several national and international agencies for their excellent anti-rabies prevention and treatment campaign.
Antipolo City Mayor Jun Ynares said the CVO and CHO were cited as the Best Implementers of the Japan and Philippines Rabies One Health (JAPOHR) Project: One Health Rabies Prevention and Treatment Method which aims to introduce new and advanced technology in the mitigation and detection of rabies cases in the country.
"Salamat sa Japan and Philippines Rabies One Health, Oita University, Department of Agriculture - Bureau of Animal Industry (DA-BAI), Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), at sa Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) para sa parangal at pagkilala sa natatanging galing at husay ng aming mga kasama (I thank Japan and Philippines Rabies One Health, Oita University, Department of Agriculture - Bureau of Animal Industry, Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, Japan International Cooperation Agency, and to the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development for these recognitions that are testaments to the skill and excellence of our teams)," Ynares said.
In January, Ynares announced that the city is now using a new system for the detection of rabies cases in the city.
A seminar was conducted by the CVO and CHO regarding the use of the Rabies Rapid Response with Rabies Data Share System (RaDSS) developed by JICA and DA-BAI for its project dubbed as "Establishment of the One Health Prevention and Treatment Network Model for the Elimination of Rabies in the Philippines" also known as the JAPOHR Project.
Aside from the development of RaDSS, the agencies also introduced the Immunochromatographic Test Kit (ICT Kit) for rabies which supports easy, fast, and accurate diagnosis of the disease.
According to JICA, rabies diagnosis takes about 2-3 hours with the use of a microscope and an incubator in normal circumstances. With the new ICT kits, diagnosis is radically sped up to 20-30 minutes, thus accelerating detection and the start of treatment.
Ynares said the RaDSS features real-time data sharing, rabies contact tracing, streamlined response case investigation, and containment procedures which further streamline the rabies detection and treatment capabilities of the city.
The Anti-Rabies Law of 2007 established the National Rabies Prevention and Control Program (NRPCP) to control, prevent the spread of, and eventually eradicate human and animal rabies, and to promote responsible pet ownership.
Department of Health (DOH) records show that rabies infections in the country, mostly due to unvaccinated dogs, have a case fatality rate of 100 percent.
The World Health Organization (WHO) also considers rabies an extremely deadly disease, saying that “once clinical symptoms appear in humans, rabies is virtually 100 percent fatal.”