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Federal State Health-care Facility
"MOSCOW CENTER OF HYGIENE AND EPIDEMIOLOGY"
information from the official site http://www.mossanepid.ru/
06.04.2006
Epizootic situation rabies-wise in Moscow
A tense epidemic and epizootic situation rabies-wise is noted in Moscow Region. During the elapsed time of the year 2006, in Moscow Region, 12 cases of rabies disease in animals on the territory of 10 districts have been revealed, including Leninsky District, adjoining the municipal territory.
Rabies-diseased animals have been increasingly delivered to the city.
Moscow municipal veterinary laboratory of the Moscow Veterinary Association confirmed rabies diseases in 12 Moscow animals in 2005 (ten dogs and two cats), all of which had been infected while they were Moscow Region (11 cases) and in Ryazan Region (1 case).
In 2006, rabies was diagnosed in 6 animals, out of this, in 5 Moscow dogs that were in affected areas of Moscow Region (4 cases) and in Tver Region (1 case).
It must be noted that none of the diseased animals had been given an anti-rabies preventive vaccine injection.
In March of 2006, two cases of rabies disease in dogs were revealed in Northern Butovo, South-Western administrative District of Moscow.
Northern Butovo is just beyond the Moscow Circular Motor Road (MCMR) and adjoins Leninsky District of Moscow Region, where rabies-wise the situation is troublesome (the last rabies case was discovered in a dog on 08.02.06. at the Lenin state farm).
The dog picked up by a lady-dweller of Northern Butovo in January of 2006 around the metro station “Boulevard Dmitriya Doinskogo” fell ill and died on 12.02.06. Rabies was diagnosed too late, the dog corpse was kept on the balcony. There were 7 other dogs in the same apartment.
Another dog was suspected to have rabies on 20.03.06, when the dog owner applied to the Butovo District Veterinary Clinic. The sick dog was quarantined by the Moscow Station for Combating Animal Diseases, where it died on 28.03.06. After the investigation of brain matter, the rabies diagnosis was confirmed.
The other 6 dogs were given a lethal injection, their corpses sent to the Moscow Municipal Veterinary Laboratory.
The lady-owner of the animals, who had been bitten by a rabies-infected dog, was told to undergo a course of anti-rabies vaccinations.
To localize the focus of rabies, specialists of Rospotrebnadzor Territorial Department for Moscow in the South-Western Administrative District have, in conjunction with the state veterinary service of the administrative district, organized and implemented a package of anti-epidemics, anti-epizootics and preventive measures. Following the decision of the sanitary-epidemiological commission of the South-Western Administrative District, Northern Butovo has been declared an area troublesome rabies-wise. A plan of measures to prevent the spread of rabies has been developed, which includes restrictions on mass activities, involving animals; anti-rabies vaccination of animals has been organized, action has been taken to trap homeless animals.
Over the last five years, Moscow has displayed a high rate of humans bitten by animals running a high potential risk of being rabies-infected. From year to year, indices of medical aid appealability in connection with bites of humans by animals are above the Russian average. In 2005, 29243 people applied to Moscow treatment-and-prophylactic facilities, which is 6.4% more compared with 2004.
Since 2001, there has been an adverse trend of the growing number of humans bitten by homeless animals from 44.8% in 2001 to 54.8% in 2005, which has been due to the poor performance of organizations designed to control the population of such animals. The number of severe injuries and mutilations resulting from the bites by animals increased from 3801 in 2001 to 6288 in 2005.
In 2005, the highest indices of appealability in connection with bites inflicted by animals on humans, exceeding the urban average, were noted at Vnukovo (407.96), North-Eastern (333.63), South-Western (333.0) and South-Eastern (298.81) Administrative Districts.
In Moscow as a whole, in 2005, economic damage resulting from animal bites inflicted on humans, without counting the price of anti-rabies drugs, amounted to Rbls. 79 million,164 thousand.
The high rates of humans bitten by animals are conditioned by certain factors that are related to the problems of keeping and regulating the population of animals in the city. These are violations by individuals and various institutions of the “Regulations of Keeping Dogs and Cats in the Towns and Other Human Settlements of the RSFSR”, plus poorly organized work to regulate the population of homeless animals.
It is a matter for regret that even though prophylactic anti-rabies inoculations are provided anywhere and free of charge, the dog owners fail to demonstrate due responsibility; they do not apply to veterinarian facilities for timely vaccination, thereby condemning their pets, eventually, to demise and endangering own life.
Quite earnestly, we draw the attention of Muscovites, above all, of pet owners, to the need to heed rabies-prevention measures.
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