Vetnuus | September 2024 15 Knee-jerk reaction or mitigating circumstances My story with a brush of ‘non’ rabies. As the editor of Vetnews, I am very well aware of the dangers of rabies. Maybe I am a little sensitive but as a mother of a young CCS vet daughter who had a brush with rabies in rural Acornhoek and has seen rabies in animals, it is likely to be expected. There is after all no other zoonotic disease so much in the spotlight as this. So, I am involved as an official in a regularly organised run event every Saturday. The event is hosted on a terrain where training for antipoaching takes place. They also have a little farm with a nice herd of sheep, a couple of donkeys, some horses and other farm animals. An Anatolian dog gets donated and it stays out with the herd of sheep. It has to be said that the area is endemic for rabies. On a particular Saturday the dog unprovoked bite one of the volunteers in the face. Deep bruising and blood. Subsequently, at the same event, some leashed dogs are also attacked resulting in the owners suffering some scrapes and scuffs. Not sure whether it is from their own dogs or the Anatolian. Being the most senior official on the day and having to report any incident back to ‘head office’ I had to take responsibility for what happened. I immediately try to get hold of the people responsible for the dog to determine the vaccination status of the dog. It has to be noted that the dog has been around for a while and was always friendly, this behaviour was completely outside the natural behaviour. It also has to be noted that there were small lambs in the herd at the time. Not being able to track down any form of vaccination certificate and not being able to get hold of the State Veterinarian, I make the call and recommend PEP for 3 people to start immediately. Fortunately, the pharmacy has some vaccinations and dose 1 is administered as required within 24 hours after the incident. The rest of the weekend I work tirelessly to get some form of proof of this dog’s vaccination status, I get many assurances but no proof. I even get threatened not to take it further and get laughed at for recommending PEP. On Monday the state veterinarian phones back and takes over the veterinary side of things. It turns out that despite all the assurances no duly signed vaccination certificates for at least 2 years could not be produced for the dog. The veterinarian responsible for the animals on site is not South African and it is not clear whether she is registered to work in SA. She produces unsigned vaccination certificates and although she says the dog shows no further symptoms, she recommends the 3 people on PEP continue with it. The people are recommended to speak to their respective doctors (hoping the doctors have some knowledge of rabies). I am happy to report that the dog did not have rabies. Did I overreact? I am not sure. Please share with me your feelings about a case like this. The second brush we had with the ignorance of people about Rabies was when we asked our Medical continuation fund for vaccinations and their reaction was that they do not vaccinate members not in active service and if you get bitten you have to wait for symptoms and then see a doctor. Shocking. One can only hope that the person who made that decision and remark will never run into a situation where this happens. One would like to think that people working in a medical environment would be a little better informed. Another incident is where 3 people at the rural CCS clinic were exposed to a confirmed rabid dog. The local rural hospital is only willing to part with 2 doses of PEP and does not even try to secure more. I would love to hear your views on how educated the general public is on rabies. Is more education done in rural areas than in the more informed areas, or who we think should be better informed? v Editor
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