Anti Rabies Vaccination for 400 Lecturers and Students of IPB Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Four hundred students and faculty members of Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) on 23/6 got injections of anti-rabies vaccine. This activity, held in cooperation of Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (FKH) of IPB, Coordinating Ministry for People’s Welfare and Ministry of Health, is to ensure the safety of medical personnel in helping with the prevention, reduction and treatment of rabies cases. Vaccination is done to 150 FKH undergraduates, 80 students of the Veterinary Paramedic Major Program (Diploma), 120 students of Veterinary Education Program (PPDH) and 50 lecturers of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. Vaccination will be repeated three times: the 1st day, 7th day, 28th day to get adequate immunity.
Indonesia is currently facing diseases transmitted from animals to humans (zoonoses), which are fatal to humans. One of them is rabies because if it is infected, the end result is death as until now there has been no cure for rabies. Rabies becomes one of the health problems in Indonesia. There are 55 thousand deaths per year in the world because of rabies. There are 24 provinces in Indonesia are infected with rabies, so it should be highlighted for an immediate treatment. Source of rabies are such animals as dogs, cats, monkeys, and others. Generally for dogs, humans are threatened if got the bite from the rabies infected animals.
"This year, FKH-IPB is collaborating with the Government of Riau Province, the region with an increasing incidence of rabies. We are expected to help the limited number officials there. We were requested to help by deploying 130 students and faculty members in August 2014 to go into the community to help with rabies eradication, vaccination, socialization and inform how to handle it," said Dean of FKH-IPB, Prof. Dr. DVM. Srihadi Agung Priyono in his speech. "Vaccination against rabies should be given to a person who is potential to get infected because of frequent contact with such animals,” added the Dean
Further, he said, the best prevention effort is to wash the wound immediately after being bitten by an animal. "The first act is washing the wound in water for 10-15 minutes with soap or detergent. Rabies virus attaches fat, so that it will dissolve with the soap or detergent. This is the first aid that could save people," he said. Anti-rabies vaccine is usually available in areas with a high population of dogs. Therefore it is recommended for the local governments to establish a Rabies Center.
Full support is also expressed by the Rector of IPB, Prof. Dr. Ir. Herry Suhardiyanto, who was present and witnessed when Prof. Srihadi symbolically became the first lecturer to be rabies-vaccinated. According to him, the students of FKH-IPB are the frontline for Indonesia to be free from rabies. This activity is the effort in the prevention of undesirable events, i.e. not to infect those in charge. It’s really making all of us aware of the importance of vaccination against rabies. (Mtd)
