Theprogramme aims for the rate of vaccinated pet dogs in communes, wards and townsto exceed 85 percent while more than 70 percent of provinces will record noincidents of rabies in pet dogs for two consecutive years.
By 2021,over 95 percent of communes, wards and towns are expected to provide lists ofhouseholds with pet dogs, while the number of fatalities due to rabies is hopedto be reduced by 60 percent.
Pham VanDong, Director of the Animal Health Department under the Ministry ofAgriculture and Rural Development, said rabies claims more than 70 lives onaverage each year and nearly 400,000 people have to seek medical help afterbeing bitten by dogs, costing the country about 800 billion VND (34.78 millionUSD) yearly.
Participantsdiscussed building rabies-free zones, coordinating to control rabies, improvinginstitutional capacity and inter-sectoral communications about the disease.
The countrycurrently has more than 7.7 million pet dogs, but only 2.9 million of them arevaccinated.
Last year, morethan 411,000 people were bitten by dogs and 91 were killed by rabies in 28cities and provinces nationwide. In the first quarter this year, 12 fatalitiesdue to rabies were recorded.
Part of thereason for the problem is poor management of pet dogs in many localities,especially in rural and mountainous areas, and a lack of caninevaccination.-VNA