A gloomy atmosphere reigned during a public hearing on rabies as scores of local scientists and veterinarians expressed their pessimism over the local administration's target to purge the epidemic completely by 2012.
The scientists and veterinarians argued prevailing mitigation strategies were too fragmented and not comprehensive enough to allow the administration to reach that target.
Monday's public hearing was held at the Bali Legislative Council as part of the deliberation process on the proposed Rabies Mitigation bylaw. The hearing was attended by representatives from Udayana University's Veterinary Faculty, Association of Bali's Veterinarians (PDHI), Veterinary Main Office (BBV) and veterinary agencies across Bali.
BBV team member Ngurah Dewa Dharma said the epidemic has been improperly handled as local administrations had employed measures that were either ineffective or too slow to contain the deadly epidemic.
Accepted epidemic mitigation measures, such as the establishment of an incident control system and easily accessed monitoring and reporting mechanisms, had never been implemented in the island.
"Mass vaccination targeting stray dogs failed to cover at least 70 percent of the existing population due to lack of human resources and logistical support," he said, adding the culling could be reduced when vaccination had achieved the targeted coverage.
He said the local administration had failed to put necessary biosecurity measures in place, including in limiting the outbound traffic of dogs from known infected areas.
"Such traffic is still taking place. There has been no effort to control the trade and ownership of dogs."
Outbound dog traffic from infected areas was identified as the sole cause of the recent spread of the epidemic to Karangasem regency. Rabies hit Bali late last year and initially affected two regions, Denpasar and Badung. Currently, the epidemic has spread to Tabanan and Karangasem. The first rabies case in Karangasem involved a dog that had been transported from Denpasar.
Influential scientist Dr. I Gusti Ngurah Mahardika said the existing mitigation strategy was partial and would make it difficult, if not impossible, to free Bali from the epidemic.
"The local administrations spend more money to treat victims of dog bites than on measures to prevent such bites from taking place," he said, adding more than Rp 10 billion had been spent on treatment.
Mahardika, a German-educated virologist, played a pivotal role in the research and mitigation measures to contain the spread of the deadly H5N1 and H1N1 in the island. He has become a leading voice in the push for a unified and comprehensive strategy in dealing with virus-borne epidemics.
He said it would not be that difficult to contain the rabies epidemic.
"The main vector of this epidemic has been clearly identified - dogs. All we need to do is to launch mitigation measures that are implemented simultaneously in all affected regions and are massive in scale."
He also lamented the fact that the rabies mitigation teams, which were coordinated by the government's veterinary agencies, had yet to tap the available manpower at the island's universities.
"Udayana University's veterinary faculty has 700 students, veterinarians and professors. The teams could mobilize them at any time."
Earlier in the morning, a 12-year old boy passed away in Sanglah Central Hospital after receiving treatment for symptoms closely associated with rabies. The boy, Yuliarta, was rushed from Karangasem regional hospital to Sanglah on Sunday night.
"He was bitten by a dog around one month ago and had not received any anti-rabies vaccine," Sanglah's rabies mitigation team spokesperson Ken Wirasandhi said.
So far, as many as 20 people have died in the island after displaying rabies symptoms.
