Beijing has opened 37 new
outpatient clinics to provide rabies vaccination since the
beginning of 2007, bringing the total number of the clinics to 82,
according to the municipal health bureau.
The clinics, which are also designed to raise public
awareness of rabies prevention, are required to be open round the
clock and make regular reports to local centers for disease control
and prevention, according to the bureau.
Rabies, often spread by dogs, attacks the nervous
system and is fatal to humans if not treated prior to the onset of
symptoms. It is followed by tuberculosis, AIDS, hepatitis B and
infant tetanus on the list of the most deadly infectious diseases
in China
The districts and counties of the Chinese capital are
required to set up more clinics to provide inoculations against
rabies.
Although no permanent resident of Beijing has
contracted rabies in 2006, nine people who contracted rabies in
other parts of the country were brought to Beijing for treatment in
local hospitals before they died. Another woman living in Beijing,
who was not a permanent resident here, contracted rabies from a dog
she had brought from outside the city.
The disease killed more than 2,000 people in other
parts of the country last year.
Despite the local government's good record of
controlling rabies, more than 110,000 Beijing residents have
received rabies inoculations to prevent the onset of the disease
after they were bitten or scratched by a dog or cat.
Beijing now has more than
550,000 registered dogs, while the actual number is estimated to be
over one million.
The municipal government launched a two-month campaign
since November last year to check if Beijingers have licenses for
their dogs, and to ensure one family has only one dog. Dangerous
dogs or dogs taller than 35 cm, such as mastiffs, Dobermans, Saint
Bernards and Great Danes, are banned.
(Xinhua News Agency January 27, 2007)
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