“Mama, ahu noran ko?” Maria Evi asked a local woman who she was visiting on Thursday. In the local Maumere language, Evi was asking whether the woman had any dogs (ahu).
Evi, an animal health officer at Sikka regency’s agriculture agency, was with Evensius Alxandro making house calls and administering anti-rabies vaccines to dogs in Teteng hamlet, Watugong village, East Alok district, Sikka. They had 60 doses of the vaccine on them.
Locals are familiar with Evi. Since July this year, she has visited the village several times to administer shots to local dogs.
“Yes, I have several dogs,” answered Paskela Nona Tati, 41.
Paskela then handed her dogs, one by one, over to Alxandro who was preparing some syringes. She had five dogs and two cats —all of whom were vaccinated that day. Cats —along with dogs, monkeys and bats— can act as hosts to rabies.
Paskela and other villagers were eager to vaccinate their pets after news spread of a child, Euprasia L Glelo, 5, dying from rabies in Baumekot village, Hewokloang district, Sikka.
Euprasia had been bitten by a dog in May this year, but was only taken to a doctor in late August. Euprasia died at the TC Hillers Regional Hospital last Saturday.
Data from the Sikka regency health agency showed that there were 759 reported cases of rabid dog bites in Sikka from January to July this year, comprising 78 in January, 103 in February, 109 in March, 113 in April, 121 in May, 118 in June and 117 in July.
Rabies was first reported in the Flores-Lembata region in 1997. AS of 2017, 321 had died from the disease. The region comprises nine regencies, namely West Manggarai, Manggarai, East Manggarai, Ngada, Nagekeo, Ende, Sikka, East Flores and Lembata.
About 9,000 cases of dog bites occurred in the region last year. From January to July this year, there were 5,000 cases, eight of which resulted in deaths, which occurred in East Manggarai, Nagekeo, Ende, Sikka and Lembata.
After vaccinating Paskela’s pets, Evi and Elxandro visited other houses. Evi wrote down the identity of pet owners, the sex of their pets and asked the pet owners for their signatures. Alxandro administered the vaccines.
The two were contracted by animal health officers at the Sikka agriculture agency. They are each paid Rp 1.5 million (US$100.78) a month to vaccinate local dogs and other animals.
They were tasked to vaccinate the animals in East Alok district, which comprises seven villages and subdistricts. Thus far, they have combed five subdistricts.
“Locals have been enthusiastic. Perhaps this is because of the news of the child in Baumekot dying from rabies. The news frightened locals and they are now aware of the dangers of rabies. Now, it’s the residents who actively ask the Sikka agriculture agency to vaccinate their pets,” Evi said.
Rejections
Evi said many locals previously rejected the vaccination campaign due to various reasons, including saying that their dogs were still small, that they were afraid that pregnant dogs will die from the vaccination and that they had no dogs.
This despite Evi’s efforts to assure them that healthy dogs, who are more than two weeks old, can be vaccinated, even if they are pregnant.
Rinelis, 38, who had two pregnant dogs, only gave one of them to Alxandro.
“You just vaccinate this one. This one goes out a lot and she is prone to bites. I keep the other one on a leash at home all the time. She is safe. No need to vaccinate her,” Rinelis said.
Averus Afelinus, 51, another Watugong villager and dog owner, had a similar perception.
“I once had a pregnant dog. She became weak after vaccination,” Averus said.
Residents of Sikka, and of Flores-Lembata in general, keep dogs to guard their homes and gardens, for consumption and to be sold. Adult dogs are generally priced between Rp 400,000 and Rp 500,000.
Alxandro said vaccinations often took a long time. Locals generally do not leash their dogs and must find and catch them first before vaccination. “This is despite us having sent official letters to subdistrict or village heads, urging them to tell locals to prepare their dogs for vaccination.”
Sikka agriculture agency head Hengki Sali acknowledged that vaccinations remained an inefficient process. Apart from a lack of vaccine stock compared to the local dog population, the agency also lacked animal health officers and vaccinators.
Sikka has 54,000 dogs and only 36,000 doses of vaccines. Operational funding for vaccination is only enough to cover 12,000 dogs. The budget for vaccinators’ payment is only Rp 7,500 per animal.
“Sikka only has 41 animal health officers to cover 21 districts. Of these officers, only eight are civil servants. The rest are contracted from the central, provincial and regency governments. We need to hire 60 more contracted vaccinators. This year, we plan to propose an additional budget of Rp 60 million in the revised regional budget to cover vaccination for 8,000 more dogs,” Hengki explained.
Flores Lembata Anti-Rabies Committee secretary Asep Purnama said vaccinations for dogs would be important to curb the spread of rabies.
“The case of the dying child in Baumekot should serve as a momentum to expand public campaigns on the dangers of rabies. The campaign should emphasize curbing the spread of rabies in dogs through vaccines, which will in turn decrease human fatalities by increasing public awareness,” he said.
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