Bolgatanga, April 5, GNA - The increase in consumption of dog heads in the Bongo District is said to be hampering research efforts into rabies cases reported at the district hospital in the area.

Dogs suspected to carry rabies popularly known as "mad dogs" among the people, are killed and eaten including the heads that are usually that part that is used to examine the presence of rabies.

The consumption of the dog meat has gone up in recent times in the district with residents now desiring for it during their leisure times. Dog meat is usually not used in preparing meals at home because of the belief that not everyone takes the meat.

This was made known on Monday, when Dr Vivian Brusset Cisneros, a Cuban doctor presented a paper on the epidemiology of rabies in the Bongo Hospital at the 11th Regional Scientific Workshop between Ghanaian doctors and their Cuban counterparts in the Upper East Region.
She said the practice hindered effective research into arriving at conclusive decisions on suspected rabies related deaths. She said so far the hospital has recorded about 101 suspected rabies cases of which 47 have been treated and discharged with five people losing their lives.
Dr Cisneros indicated that in December last year, 19 dog bites were recorded and said majority of the reported cases came from Namoo, a frontier with Burkina Faso and the Bongo central.
She said dog census conducted put the number in the Bong District at 8,217 with only 1,843 of them vaccinated against rabies. Dr Cisneros said if the rabies scare in the area would have to be contained, then dog owners should vaccinate their dogs.
The Regional Director of Health Service, Dr John Koku Awoonor Williams called for a strong surveillance system at the district level to check outbreaks of all kinds of diseases.
He said the idea about sending data to the Regional Directorate from the district level, without analyzing them slowed down the alarm system to disease outbreak.