Odisha Targets To Ensure Zero Human Rabies Deaths By 2030 

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Government declared human rabies a notifiable disease in the state. The state government has aimed to ensure zero rabies deaths in Odisha by 2030.

State Health and Family Welfare Department through a notification said rabies is causing deaths but it will be preventable by timely and appropriate measures.

With this decision, Odisha became the 12th state in the country to announce rabies as a notifiable disease.

State government directed all public, private hospitals, clinics, poly clinics, nursing homes, hospitals of other streams of medicine, medical colleges and hospitals, non-teaching hospitals, diagnostic clinics, NGO sector hospitals and municipality hospitals to report rabies cases with immediate effect.

State Health Department directed the directorates, medical colleges, hospitals, and CDMOs to ensure that suspected, probable, or confirmed cases of rabies in humans and deaths due to rabies are reported in an integrated manner on the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) portal without fail.

“Rabies is a viral disease in the country resulting in human deaths. Human rabies incidents depend critically on dog-related transmission parameters. Dogs are the main source of human rabies and up to 99 per cent of all transmission occurs due to dog bites,” the notification said.

The National Rabies Control Programme (NRCP) has been implemented to reduce death and challenges of rabies surveillance. It has been made mandatory to report all cases in a proper format to keep track of the disease so that elimination can be planned properly.