PUTRAJAYA: Vaccines for rabies are not readily available outside Perak and Sarawak. But pet owners in Peninsular Malaysia need not fret because the situation is under control, said Veterinary Services Department (DVS).
DVS director-general Datuk Dr Quaza Nizamuddin Hassan Nizam said it is not necessary for all dog owners outside the affected areas to get anti-rabies vaccination for their pets at the moment.
“There is no need for everyone to get the vaccines for their dogs or for us to send the vaccine to all states now - except for Perak and Sarawak," he said.
Reiterating that the recent rabies outbreak in Kuala Sepetang in Taiping, Perak was an isolated case, Dr Quaza said his team has found 60 carcasses of rabies-infected dogs with bite marks in the area.
“Kuala Sepetang is outside our immune belt, which is located along the border lines of our neighbouring countries. We suspect that the rabies-infected dogs in Kuala Sepetang were carried by foreign vessels,” he said.
Dr Quaza said surveillance was being done within a one-kilometre radius of the detected case with a dog population of 305 in Kuala Sepetang.
A total of 19 stray dogs have been culled so far and more could be put down to contain the outbreak.
“We are assessing the stray dogs situation. There are about 300 of them. If we need to put them down, we will put them down.
“You have to understand that they are wild dogs and they tend to bite. We need to put them down when there is a disease outbreak," he explained.
The Perak government has declared the Matang sub-district, where the case was first detected, as well as Larut and Selama, as rabies-infected areas.
The dog in question had showed clinical symptoms of contracting the viral disease; vomiting, having no appetite, fever and cramps, five days after it bit two girls aged 12 and 11 in Tepi Sungai.
The dog died nine days after the attack. The children recovered from the wounds without comorbid or co-existing illnesses.
But unlike Kuala Sepetang, the rabies virus in Serian, Sarawak was transmitted from across its Kalimantan border line, where cases of rabies-infected dogs have been detected, Dr Quaza confirmed.
A five-year-old girl from Kampung Ampungan in Serian recently died from rabies, making her the fourth young fatality of the viral outbreak.