Rp 17b needed to buy vaccines

The Bali provincial administration says it needs an additional Rp 17 billion to procure rabies vaccines (VAR) for humans as the rabies outbreak claims more lives on the island.

Since it first broke out on the island in November 2008, 78 people have died as a result of the disease, including the latest, Dewa Putu Yadnya, a resident of Banjar Kwanji, Dalung, who died at Sanglah Hospital on Wednesday.

The epidemic has led the Bali administration to provide free vaccines for dogs and affected humans.
For 2010, the administration allocated Rp 4.9 billion from its provincial budget to distribute free vaccines to all regional hospitals in eight regencies.

But the number of fatalities and dog bite cases increased sharply, quickly drying up the allocated fund.
Administration spokesman Ketut Teneng said the fund was inadequate.

“In July, we ran out of money to procure VAR. We are now working to allocate more money from the provincial and regional budget,” he said.

The money would be sourced from emergency funds (Rp 2 billion), from a revision to the provincial budget (Rp 7.7 billion) and from the regional budget (Rp 7.4 billion).In 2009, the Bali administration spent Rp 10.68 billion on rabies vaccines.

“The VAR fund is likely to double this year. This exceeded our predictions,” Teneng added.

Bali Health Agency head I Nyoman Suteja said increasing demand for vaccines was related to the rise in dog bite cases, which had reached 34,000 cases as of July. In 2009, he said, the office recorded only 28,000 dog bite cases.

Suteja said Bali would again run a mass vaccination drive for the island’s entire canine population from September to December.
Suteja added that so far, the office did not have accurate data to map the rabies cases in Bali.

“The vaccination programs in all regencies still face many obstacles,” he said. “Repeated vaccination is a necessary otherwise the program won’t be effective.”

The enforcement of a bylaw on rabies prevention has been very weak and ineffective, he said. “No sanctions have been imposed on the owners of neglected dogs,” he said.

Udayana University School of Husbandry rabies researcher I Gusti Ngurah Mahardika said that his institution was designing an advocacy program to educate rural communities in providing medical assistance to victims of dog bites.

“It will be impossible for Bali to be free of rabies in 2012 if we do not educate people on how to address cases of dog bites,” he said.