Enforcement personnel remove a stray dog during an operation in Kuching.
TWO years since the rabies outbreak was declared, the disease continues to affect Sarawakians across the state.
On Jan 11, the rabies outbreak was declared a level two disaster under the State Disaster Management Committee to enable all government agencies to pool resources in a concerted effort to mobilise and contain its spread.
To date there have been 21 fatalities in Sarawak, with the most recent being a five-year-old boy from Kampung Mambong, Jalan Penrissen on Nov 2. He passed away at the Sarawak General Hospital intensive care unit.
Rabies also claimed the lives of five others this year – an 80-year-old woman from Serian on Jan 18; a 26-year-old man from Kuching on May 31; a 61-year-old woman from Kuching on June 12; a 46-year-old man from Kota Padawan on Aug 7; and a 64-year-old man from Mukah on Aug 19.
A pet dog receives a rabies jab during a vaccination campaign.
Up until this month, 63 areas in Sarawak have been gazetted as rabies-infected, with highest number being in Serian Division (22), followed by Kuching (7), Sri Aman (5), Miri (6), Sarikei (5), Samarahan (4), Mukah (4), Betong (4), Sibu (2), and Kapit (1).
Sarawak began carrying out integrated rabies operations involving various government agencies in March, starting with a pilot project in Bau and Lundu that focussed on vaccinating dogs and removing strays.
The operations involved the police, military, Fire and Rescue Department, Civil Defence Force, DVS, Local Government and Housing Ministry, and Sarawak Forestry Corporation.
In the fight against rabies, the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) achieved its target to vaccinate 70 per cent of the estimated 205,000 dog population across Sarawak during Ops Rabies, which began on March 1.
DVS Sarawak director Dr Adrian Susin Ambud revealed on Dec 1 that over 149,000 dogs – 73 per cent of the estimated total dog population – had been vaccinated.
“We will continue to vaccinate until we achieve our mission to be rabies-free by 2025,” he said.
Adrian reiterated that continuous public cooperation and support are needed to eradicate the disease.
The Kuching North City Commission (DBKU) closed Reservoir Park to the public on July 24 after at least one jogger was bitten there.
One of four dogs caught there tested positive for rabies on July 26.
African Swine Fever
Although Sarawak is free of the African Swine Fever (ASF) virus, which affects animals and not humans, the government has put in place strict measures at entry points, banning all pork products from being brought in; whatever the form.
This includes confiscating any pork product carried by airline passengers into Sarawak.
This is to ensure Sarawak remains one of two regions – the other being Pulau Bulan, Indonesia – able to export live pigs to Singapore.
Sarawak’s temporary ban on pork and pork-based products imported from countries affected by ASF such as China followed DVS’ recent tests on 17 canned luncheon pork imported from China for ASF, which detected ASF DNA in one of the samples.
The detected virus DNA was confirmed by the department’s Veterinary Public Health laboratories in a test using Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (q-PCR), on Oct 25.
The department also confirmed there has so far been no ASF infection reported in pigs in Sarawak and the detection of the virus did not change Sarawak’s ASF-free status.
According to Section 13A of the Food Act 1983, it is an offence for any person involved in importing, distributing, storing, or selling food that has in or on it any substance of animal or vegetable that is diseased, filthy, decomposed, or putrid.
The offender shall be liable to a fine not exceeding RM50,000, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding eight years, or both.
Dengue
Dengue cases in Sarawak rose a whopping 270 per cent from January to August this year compared to the corresponding period last year.
There were 1,258 cases this year compared to 340 cases in 2018.
The highest number of cases was in Kuching Division (4850, followed by Miri (169), Betong (125), Sibu (119), Samarahan (101) Kapit (59), Serian (57), Sarikei (44), Bintulu (41), Sri Aman (23), Limbang (21), and Mukah (14).
Comprehensive control and prevention activities have been carried out including removal of breeding grounds, applying larviciding, fogging, cleaning of potential breeding grounds, enforcement through issuance of compounds, and health educational activities.
Gotong-royong clean-ups were also carried out in many places to clear mosquito breeding grounds.
One death was recorded in Miri, where a 68-year-old man died due to dengue on Sept 22.