KUCHING: Local health authorities in Sarawak and West Kalimantan, Indonesia will conduct a joint vaccination exercise to mitigate the spread of rabies along the Sarawak-Kalimantan border soon.
The joint exercise was held to create an "immunity belt" to curb the spread of the virus which had affected many areas in Serian, Kuching and Bau.
State Disaster Management Committee secretariat said the joint exercise was possible since Sarawak have a cordial transborder cooperation with West Kalimantan under the Malaysia-Indonesia Socio-Economy (Sosek-Malindo) forum.
"Sarawak and West Kalimantan will formulate a Standard Operating Procedure on joint operations related to rabies prevention to avoid problems in the future.
"No permission to import and export of animals (along the border) will be granted," said the secretariat in a statement today.
The secretariat said two more areas have been gazetted as rabies-infected areas under Section 37 of the Veterinary Public Health Ordinance 1999.
The two new locations are the Sungai Maong wet market here and Kampung Serikin, Bau, bringing the number of areas affected by the virus to 22 location.