The proposed transfer of animal rabies control from the Health Ministry to veterinary authorities should be carried out gradually and systematically to avoid disrupting the country’s rabies control programme, Deputy Health Minister Dr Hansaka Wijemuni said.
Speaking to The Daily Morning following concerns raised by Public Health Inspectors (PHIs), Dr Wijemuni said yesterday (21) that the proposed Rabies Eradication and Dog Registration Bill had not yet been presented to Parliament.
He said the Bill covers two separate areas – human rabies and animal rabies – with human rabies handled by the Health Ministry and animal rabies coming under the veterinary authorities.
“Human rabies is handled by the Ministry, while animal rabies comes under the veterinary authorities,” Dr Wijemuni said, adding that animal rabies control would come under the Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation Ministry and the Department of Animal Production and Health (DAPH), which comes under the agriculture sector.
He said Sri Lanka currently handles both human and animal rabies through the Health Ministry, unlike the system followed internationally, where veterinarians are responsible for animal rabies and medical doctors for human rabies.
According to Dr Wijemuni, Sri Lanka continues to record around 20 to 25 deaths from rabies each year, while the Government’s target is to reduce the number to zero by 2030, in line with its plan submitted to the World Health Organisation.
He said Sri Lanka needed to improve its progress, noting that countries which had similar levels of rabies deaths around 20 years ago had reduced their annual deaths to one or two or close to zero. Thailand was one such example, he said.
“We may say that we have been successful if we compare the situation with 30 or 40 years ago. But every year should be better than the previous year. That is the real measure of success,” he said.
Dr Wijemuni said dog vaccination coverage also remained inadequate, with at least 75% coverage needed to achieve the required targets. He identified the large stray-dog population as one of the challenges in reaching adequate coverage.
He stressed that responsibility for animal rabies control should not be transferred abruptly, as the veterinary authorities did not currently have enough trained vaccinators to immediately take over the existing programme.
“We have people who have been trained to administer the vaccines. Either the veterinary authorities have to use their own vaccinators, hire the people that we have trained, or request them from us,” he said.
Dr Wijemuni also said the Health Ministry currently spends around Rs. 200 million from its budget on dog vaccination and other dog-related activities, adding that this expenditure should eventually be transferred to the veterinary authorities along with responsibility for animal rabies control.
He said the Ministry also spends a larger amount on vaccinating people exposed to rabies, as it is often not known whether a dog involved in a bite had been vaccinated.
“Even after doing all this, around 25 people are dying every year. Therefore, we cannot say that the present system is the best. We need to move towards a better system,” he said.
Meanwhile, the PHIs Union has raised concerns about its role under the proposed Bill, noting that while Medical Officers of Health and Police officers are identified as authorised officers, PHIs are not included.
The PHIs argued that their exclusion could create practical difficulties at the community level, given their existing involvement in dealing with dog-bite complaints, suspected rabies cases and dog-related issues.
Dr Wijemuni said the success of the new system would depend on ensuring that responsibility is properly transferred from the Health Ministry to the relevant veterinary authorities.
“The baton has to be properly passed from one side to the other,” he said.
The Deputy Director General (Public Health Services) could not be reached for comment on the concerns raised by the PHIs.