MANILA, Philippines—Despite the fact that rabies is a 100 percent fatal viral disease and that all its victims die a slow, horrible death, the Philippines has remained complacent about it with the majority of Filipino children yet to receive preexposure rabies vaccination.

“We realized that more than poverty, the lack of education keeps a lot of families from letting their children get vaccinated to protect against rabies. In fact, once we explained to them the consequences of their inaction, cost becomes less relevant,” explained Dr. May Book-Montellano, president of Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society of the Philippines.

While, the vaccine doesn’t come cheap—it may set a family back by a few thousands of pesos—there are dire consequences for not getting it.

“Once bitten, the victim must receive series of shots. If the individual is already vaccinated, he or she will no longer need the passive immunization with rabies immune globulin. This means, savings for the victim’s family,” she said.

On the other hand, if rabies is present and the victim fails to take these series of shots, symptoms will soon develop and it would already be too late, as the victim is sure to die.

“We also tell families that claims of so-called bite survivors who just employed garlic or “tandok” (suction, using carabao horn or animal bone) are all baseless since if one just employed these traditional means and developed no symptoms afterward, it was because the dog was not rabid in the first place,” said Montellano.

Nationwide campaign

This is why, Montellano reported, the PDISP decided to embark on a nationwide campaign to educate community leaders and local officials.

The first public meeting took place at the Bonifacio High Street in Taguig City.

“Afterward, the PDISP will go to the provinces where there are high rate of cases reported. This would include the Bicol region (particularly Camarines Sur), Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog (Calabarzon), Cagayan Valley and Central Visayas.

She added that the Philippines, which ranks sixth in Asia for the most number of cases of rabies, hopes to eliminate this problem by 2020.

Complements

Montellano clarified that her group’s campaign complements what the Department of Health is set to accomplish under Republic Act 9482.

Otherwise known as the Anti-rabies Act of 2007, it provides for the DOH to take care of the vaccination of the population, providing treatment for bite victims and vaccinations not only to veterinarians, laboratory staff and other people with a high risk of exposure to the rabies virus, but also to schoolchildren aged 5 to 14.

She said the department needs all the support to make RA 9482 successful.

If the population is uninformed, no one will go to the doctor or health center and asked to be vaccinated.

To help the group in their provincial campaign, PDISP partnered with Sanofi-Pasteur, which has been providing preexposure rabies vaccine (inactivated, purified rabies vaccine prepared on vero cell line) since 1987.

Montellano added that this campaign offers PDISP members a unique opportunity to increase awareness of the most deadly disease known to humans.

Acute inflammation

Rabies virus causes acute inflammation of the brain. The incubation period—the time from exposure to development of symptoms—varies from several days to several years, depending on the animal.

“During this time there are no obvious symptoms, although some exhibit nonspecific ones, such as malaise, fever or headache, which may last for days. However, after the virus has reached the brain, symptoms of brain dysfunction develop and can include anxiety, confusion, agitation, delirium, abnormal behavior, hallucinations and insomnia,” Montellano warned.

The victim usually dies within seven days of developing these severe symptoms.

Today rabies virus accounts for over 60,000 human deaths annually worldwide, more than polio, diphtheria and yellow fever combined.

Globally, a bite from a rabid dog remains the most abundant source of human infection: 98 percent here in the Philippines with the remaining 2 percent caused by either cats or bats (spelunkers are the usual victims since bats mostly live in caves).

“Since very few Filipinos would spend for their dogs’ vaccination perhaps it would be different if they will realize that their children are also at risk,” the doctor reported.