LAOAG CITY, Ilocos Norte – This province was placed under emergency health situation due to rabies cases in 53 barangays.
Dr. Loida Valenzuela, provincial veterinarian of Ilocos Norte, confirmed on Sunday, June 11, that positive rabies cases were recorded in Batac City and Laoag City and the towns of Paoay, San Nicolas, and Badoc.
“We came up with this emergency health situation due to the rising incidence of dog rabies cases in the villages to mobilize all the local officials down to the barangays promoting the massive vaccination of dogs against rabies virus to control if not eliminate its spread all over the province,” she said.
To contain the spread of rabies, Valenzuela said that there is a need for a multi-agency approach, including the police and the pet owners.
“I am also appealing to the police authorities to strictly implement the RA 9482 or the Anti-Rabies Act of 2007 to help in the advocacy of importance on the massive vaccination of dogs in their area,” she said.
“To the pet owners, they should be responsible to subject their dogs to anti-rabies vaccination for the protection of the community residents from possible rabies virus infection,” she added.
She said that the province has at least 66,000 dogs that needs to be vaccinated with the anti-rabies vaccine at the soonest possible time.
“For now, we are implementing the risk-based vaccination program to prevent the spread of the rabies virus in the province and we strengthen the border control checkpoints to prevent the possible entry of the rabies virus to the province,” Valenzuela said.