Sana’a – Mohammed Al-HassaniWalking through her school in Sa’wan, north of the Yemni capital of Sana’a, 11-year-old Zainab can almost hear her father again, almost see him still in this classroom teaching. She cannot believe still that she has lost him to a dig bite.Saleh Majli Hammoud, 43, died a year ago some 50 days after a dog bit his right hand. During 10 days immediately after the attack, he was transferred six times and eventually to the Rabies Control Unit at the Republican Government Hospital, the only center in Sana’a that treats rabies. But it was closed.According to a spokesperson for the National Rabies Program, the unit shut down from for about two months from Jan. 27, through March 22, 2018 due to the lack of financial allocations, serums, and vaccines needed for treatments.During the intermittent periods that the Rabies Control Unit operated over 2017 – 2018, it admitted more than 7,000 patients. According to Mokhtar Abdel Nour, deputy director of the Department of Stray Dogs and head of the Cleaning Project Initiative of the capital’s Municipality, the number of rabies cases is increasing as more than 70,000 dogs run through the streets of Sana’a. The National Rabies Program in the Ministry of Public Health and Population, launched in 1990, the Department of Stray Dogs Control in the Municipality of the capital, and the Veterinary Laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation all are doing less.
Hamoud went untreated for 51 days. A month after the attack, he began vomiting and showed an intense fear of light and water, aggressive behavior and imsonia. He experienced involuntary contractions of the nerves, all classic symptoms of rabies. His family tried to buy serums and vaccines, but pharmacies, which depend on private companies to import them, had little.A field survey of 53 pharmacies in Sanaa found just three, all in the center of the city, that had rabies serum. Prices ranged up to 25,000 riyals (circa US $50), which is about half the average monthly salary in the country. The vaccine is available at prices ranging between 8,000 and 13,000 riyals. According to the National Rabies Program, these serums and vaccines are supposed to be administered for free.Pharmacist Mansur Hassan, the procurement officer at Sam City Pharmacies, explained that during 2017-2018 demand for rabies treatment jump 300 percent.Tamish Saleh Tamish, an on-call doctor at the Khirbet Medical Center near Sawan, mentioned that the family got Hamoud an anti-tetanus dose, immediately following his attack, to prevent bacterial contamination in the affected area. He also noted that Hamoud was finally transferred on April 1 to the Rabies Control Unit.On that day, Zainab was not reassured. She was watching her father’s symptoms intensify. “When my dad began fearing water and light, I was prevented from seeing him,” she said sorrowfully.. Tamish said: “Upon arrival, the Rabies Control United refused to formally admit him, given that case was in the advanced stages. He died three hours after.”
According to the Rabies Control Unit, 7,356 people were diagnosed with the disease during 2017-2018, and 27 died. In the last year alone, 4,214 cases were registered, and 15 patients died.Data show that 82 percent of patients infected with rabies were males and 18 percent females. Children under 15 accounted for 52.5 percent of the cases.Annual reports of the National Rabies Program of the Ministry of Public Health and Population during the period of the program 1990 -2018 revealed an increase in the number of rabies victims. The figures show an annual increase of 17.3 percent and 18 percent for injuries and deaths over the pre-war period. Looking just at the period of the war from 2015=2018, there’s been a 29.37 percnent hik in injuries and 24.5 percent rise in rabies-related deaths.
Neurosurgeon Jamal Mohammed al-Shami at Sanaa Republican Hospital explains that ravies is a viral infectious disease that causes severe even deadly brain inflammation.
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