QC residents bring pets to city’s anti-rabies vaccination drive

Pet owners on Thursday availed of free anti-rabies vaccination offered by the Quezon City Veterinary Department in partnership with the Animal Kingdom Foundation.

The activity is part of the culmination event for the commemoration of March as Rabies Awareness Month.

“Ang rabies po kasi is 100% preventable. Very fatal po ang rabies na sakit,” Quezon City Veterinarian Dr. Ana Marie Cabel told GMA Integrated News.

“Kahit po ay ikaw ay dinilaan lamang, pero may sugat ka naman, may posibilidad na pumasok ang rabies sa katawan mo. Much more kung ikaw ay kinalmot o kinagat,” Cabel added.

The World Health Organization defines rabies as a viral zoonotic—spread from animals to humans or vice versa—disease "that causes progressive and fatal inflammation of the brain and spinal cord."

Those infected experience a breakdown of the nervous system. Symptoms include headache, fever, pain or numbness of the bite site, delirium, paralysis, muscle spasms, hydrophobia and aerophobia.

Kapuso actress and Love Before Sunrise star Andrea Torres, and actress and veterinary medicine graduate Sharmaine Arnaiz were also present at the event. Both are animal welfare advocates.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Sharmaine Arnaiz (@sharms7)

Cabel says that rabies cases in Quezon City have been going down. From four humans and 14 animals infected in 2021, the numbers went down to two humans and seven animals in 2022. No cases have been reported so far in 2023.

Nationwide, however, rabies cases have increased this year so far, according to the Department of Health, with 55 cases reported as of March 10 compared to the 51 at the same point last year. — BM, GMA Integrated News