Anti-rabies vaccine now available at Ghaziabad PHCs

According to official estimates, about 150-200 patients visit government healthcare facilities in Ghaziabad every day to avail vaccines for animal bites

In a bid to make anti-rabies vaccine (ARV) available to patients near their homes, the Ghaziabad district health department has launched a pilot project enabling six primary health centres (PHCs) to administer vaccines, according to officials familiar with the matter.

Representative image.

According to official estimates, about 150-200 patients visit government healthcare facilities in Ghaziabad every day to avail vaccines for animal bites, of these nearly 95% are dog bite cases.

Presently, the ARV is available only at MMG district hospital, and district combined hospital, Sanjay Nagar, besides four community health centres at Loni, Modinagar, Muradnagar and Dasna, said health department officials.

“… we have initiated a pilot project to administer free-of-cost vaccine at six of our urban primary health centres (PHCs). Otherwise, many patients move to private facilities. In all, we have 53 PHCs and 76 health and wellness centres,” said Dr Rakesh Gupta, district surveillance officer.

He said that in future, the ARV will also be made available at these centres. The six centres have been chosen as they fall under the list of sensitive areas having high number of animal bite cases. These include ones at Shipra Sun City at Indirapuram, Loni, Khoda, Vijay Nagar, Bhopra and Modinagar.

A patient generally requires 2-5 doses of ARV depending on the severity of injury, the officials added.

Last September, the Ghaziabad municipal corporation, along with the district health department, identified 53 “high risk dog bite” zones across the district, with officials saying that they would now focus on sterilisation and vaccination of strays to reduce instances of dog bites.