The Veterinary Services Department in the Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipality of the Western Region in 2016 recorded 208 dog bite cases as compared to a total of 300 in 2017.
Between January and June last year, 169 residents were reportedly bitten by dogs.
The Municipal Veterinary Officer, Dr. Simon Gbene, who disclosed this in an interview with Ghana News Agency (GNA), described the situation as alarming.
He expressed worry that if the trend continues, it is possible more dog bite cases might be recorded by this year.
Dr. Gbene indicated that although the Veterinary Services Department had intensified its public health education on how citizens could avoid dog bites, the cases keep rising in the municipality.
“A dog that is sick, a dog that has given birth because of motherly instinct and the play drive, a dog that want to hide if you run across such dogs can bite you,” he explained.
The municipal veterinary officer said between 2016 and 2017, a total number of 508 cases were reported and investigated, out of which five were clinically confirmed to be human rabies.
“Anytime one is bitten by a dog, wash the site with soap under running water and take the wound to the hospital for it to be treated and from there go to veterinary office and we will quarantine the dog and recommend the appropriate treatment,” Dr. Gbene pointed out.
He said the recommended treatment for rabies cases is the post exposure prophylaxis injection, which is administered at day zero, three, seven, fourteen and twenty eight.
He emphasized that reports gathered on the last death recorded revealed that the public needs more education on dog bites and the rabies disease in particular.
According to him, when the deceased was bitten, she went to the hospital and was told to go and bring the dog, but she never returned to the facility and that resulted in her death.
Dr. Gbene said, “When you visit any health facility and you are asked to go and bring a dog that bite you and you don’t get the dog, please go back to the hospital and tell them that you could not find the dog they will immediately initiate treatment.”
“Once you have been bitten by a rabid dog you are not safe from the fourth day till two years, you are  within the window of being infected with rabies and the disease has no cure once the symptoms begin in humans,  so the best cure is prevention and early treatment,” he added.
GNA