Peshawar hospital continues to get dog bite vaccination cases

PESHAWAR: Locals continue to be bothered by stray dogs roaming the city streets, as at least 30 people are brought every day for vaccination to Lady Reading Hospital after dogs bite them.

"A dog bit my nephew on his ear after he teased the animal outside our house," a local, Yaseen, said while talking to Geo News. "We live in Badhber and there is a large number of stray dogs roaming the streets here."

Once bitten, the treatment takes around 90 days, a chief technician for vaccination, Akheer Jan, told Geo News. "The first vaccine days takes 28 days to complete then there is another dose that goes on for two months."

The growing number of such cases across the country shows how coexistence of humans and dogs is becoming problematic, considering that in most case it is the humans that incite the dogs.  

Although a campaign was started in the past to rid the cities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, it did not prove to be successful as the solution was not long-lasting.

According to Water and Sanitation Services Peshawar, which is responsible to kill dogs in the city, in 2016 they culled nearly 700 dogs, despite that dogs continue to pose a threat to human lives.

This is probably because shooting the animals down is not a sustainable solution. The authorities should instead focus on neutering the dogs so that they are unable to reproduce. Subsequently, the dog population would itself start to diminish.