Students of Veterinary Medicine of IPB Conducted the Vaccination to Dog Mass in Sukabumi

In the commemoration of World Rabies Day done on 28 September 2017, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (FKH), Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), plunged 60 students for the mass rabies vaccination in Sukabumi area, West Java (7/10). This activity was packed in the form of “Kemah Bakti One Health: Vaksinasi Massal dan KIE kepada Masyarakat di Kabupaten Sukabumi Memperingati World Rabies Day 2017 / One Health Mass Camp: Mass Vaccination and KIE to the Community in Sukabumi District to Celebrate the World Rabies Day 2017”. This event also involved the members of Pramuka of SD, SMP and SMA. 

Chairman of Study Center of National Zoonosis, Dr.drh. Yusuf Ridwan, conveyed the activity was very imporant to do in order to support the release of the rabies in the world proclaimed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Office International des Epizooties (OIE)  in 2030. Other than that, for IPB this activity was important in the effort to contribute and support the liberation of the rabies especially in West Java, generally in Indonesia.

Students of FKH of IPB who participated in this activity as many as 60 people were divided into two groups, namely 50 people had the mass vaccination in Cikembar Sub-district and Nyalindung Sub-district, and 10 people had the Communication, Information and Education (KIE) to the students of SD, the Integrated Service Post and PKK.

He added, this activity was done in Sukabumi, because this area was one of the districts which had the status of the rabies endemic at this time and still had the case of the rabies positive in recent years, including 2016 and 2017, and there were cases of the death in humans in 2016. Other than that, the focus of Sukabumi and West Java this year was to accelerate the liberation of the rabies in West Java.

The commemoration of the World Rabies Day was celebrated annually with different locations. The vaccination activities in dogs and KIE were done routinely every year in the endemic areas. The mass vaccination was only done for dogs not for humans.

The vaccine was prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture as much as 20 thousands doses. This vaccination was to increase the dog’s immunity to the rabies, because 98 percent of the human rabies cases were from the dog bites. By vaccinating, the dogs would be able to prevent the spread of the rabies in humans.

Meanwhile, one of the supervisors, Dr.drh. Didik Pramono, mentioned that the vaccine dog age was above five months with no vaccinated dog criteria.

This activity was the cooperation of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Health, the Coordinating Ministry of PMK; IPB; FAO; the Australia Indonesia Partnership for Emerging Infectious Diseases (AIPEID); the Office of Animal Husbandry, the Office of Health, and the Office of Education of Sukabumi District; the Office of Animal Husbandry and the Office of Health of West Java Province; and the Ministry of Environment and the National Board for Disaster Management. 

The event was opened by the Director General of Animal Husbandry and Animal Health, the Ministry of Agriculture of RI. Attended by the Regent of Sukabumi, the Ministry of Agriculture’s officials, the Ministry of Health, the Coordinating Ministry of PMK, the officials of West Java Province, FAO, and AIPEID.(dh)