Mission Rabies Goa Monthly Report February 2019 By Julie Corfmat, Project Manager Vaccination Total number of dogs vaccinated in February 2019 = 7,219 During February 2019, all of the vaccination teams continued to work in Salcete, South Goa and vaccinated over 7000 dogs. Salcete is the largest taluka in Goa and the remaining area is expected to take approximately two to three more weeks to complete. Upon completion, the teams will separate in to North and South squads. The map in Figure 1 highlights the vaccination coverage achieved across Salcete to date (marked in red) and the number of dogs vaccinated during February 2019 are marked in green. Salcete Vaccination Coverage December 2018 February 2019 Figure 1. Salcete Taluka Vaccination Coverage. December 2018 February 2019 1
Team Structure The beginning of February saw the departure of Dr Amulya and Dr Sumanth not only were they excellent team leaders but both were extremely dedicated to the numerous rescue cases they attended. Amulya was replaced by Dr Amanda (Figure 2) who has returned to Mission Rabies for her sixth! rotation and Sumanth s team was taken over by Dr Mukesh (Figure 3) who is joining the vaccination campaign in Goa for the first time. Figure 2. Dr Amanda Figure 3. Dr Mukesh Rabies Surveillance, Testing and IBCM Total number of positive rabies cases in February 2019 = 0 Zero rabies cases in February 2019! A total of eight suspected rabies cases were picked up by the surveillance team and tested this month. All eight cases were confirmed negative on post-mortem by a Lateral Flow Test (LFT) and the results were also confirmed using the gold standard Fluorescent Antibody Test. An LFT sample is shown in Figure 4. During February 2019, Integrated Bite Case Management (IBCM) Officer Omkar visited five additional hospitals and primary health care centres in North Goa following up on bite victims. This forms part of the expanding 2
IBCM project which will eventually be conducted across the whole state of Goa and was featured in the Times of India this month (Figure 5). Additional staff members are also being recruited for IBCM and this month Johnson Stephen was appointed as IBCM Manager. Johnson (Figure 6) has previously worked with other animal welfare organisations in Goa and has experience managing rescue cases. Sairaj Sawant was also welcomed to the team as IBCM Officer. Sairaj (Figure 7) has worked for MR and WVS as a surveyor and has experience working as a veterinary assistant in private veterinary hospitals. Sairaj is learning his role from Omkar who is soon to be completing one year of service with the team. Figure 4. A suspected rabid dog which had died. Result was negative using LFT The Mission Rabies Emergency Hotline received a total of 174 calls during February 2019 (Table 1). Most calls (89) concerned a request for vaccination followed by treatment requests (52) for a sick or injured dog. In addition to Chiranjeevi Mission Rabies Front Desk and Hotline Coordinator, Sarika Kinlekar has joined the 3
Panjim office as Administration Assistant (Figure 8). helping with IBCM and hotline reception. Sarika has learnt to manage the accounts and is now Figure 5. Great article published in the Times of India highlighting rabies surveillance in Goa and the IBCM project Table 1. Monthly Hotline Report (1 st 28 th February 2019) Nature of call Total 1 Vaccination request 89 2 Treatment request for sick or injured dog 52 3 Suspected rabid dog 6 4 Dog Nuisance/Menace 14 5 Adoption/rehoming request 7 6 Missing dog 1 7 Dog bitten by another dog 0 8 General dog related inquiry 2 9 Wrong number 3 10 Other 0 Total 174 4
Figure 6. Johnson IBCM Manager Figure 7. Sairaj IBCM Officer Welcome to the Mission Rabies Goa Team! Figure 8. Sarika Administration Assistant 5
Education Team The Education team have had another busy month and three education officers Ashok, Rakesh and Akshay have been working across several different taluka s (Figure 9). Ashok has been based in Pernem, North Goa and concentrating education efforts in areas where the last rabid dogs were identified. Ashok has been visiting schools (both private and government) and raising awareness within local communities. Rakesh has been working in Salcete and Ponda and Akshay has also been working ahead of the vaccination teams in Ponda. Rakesh and Akshay have also been doing a fantastic job intimating all of the areas prior to vaccination. Rescues and Releases Total number of rescue cases during February 2019 = 16 Sixteen injured animals were rescued by the vaccination teams during February 2019. Many of them were suffering from maggot wounds and some had been the victims of road traffic accidents. A few of the cases are shown in Figure 10. One dog was euthanised as its condition was extremely poor and another dog died when it reached the shelter. Special Cases This month a few special cases were attended to by the teams including another dog with its head wedged firmly inside a plastic container. The container was on so tight that it took considerable effort to cut and remove it without causing any further harm (Figure 11). In addition, Head Team Leader Frank Fernandes showed true compassion and dedication by treating a puppy in the field that was suffering from a maggot wound. Many of the shelters are over-run with puppies and once they enter a shelter they are also at an increased risk of infection. Thus, Frank attended to the puppy every day, mostly outside of working hours, flushing and cleaning the wound until it started to heal (Figure 12). An extra special case this month concerned a cat with a fish hook stuck in its mouth. Whilst vaccinating, Dr Amulya and her team discovered the cat and quickly initiated a plan to catch, restrain and sedate the cat so that the fish hook could be removed (Figure 13). However, this was easier said than done. The hook was wedged firmly inside the cat s mouth and could not be freed by hand. Luckily, a pair of pliers were supplied and the hook was carefully removed. The cat was extremely happy to be free of the fish hook and went on to make a full and speedy recovery. Total number of animals released following treatment in February 2019 = 7 In addition to the rescues, the teams released seven dogs back to their original locations (Figure 14) following treatment at a local NGO South Goa Welfare Trust for Animals (SGWTA). The remaining cases are still undergoing treatment and will be released once they are fit and well. 6
Figure 9. Educational visits to raise awareness of rabies and to prevent dog bites 7
Figure 10. A few of the animals rescued by Mission Rabies during February 2019 8
Special Case 1 Figure 11. Team carefully removing plastic container which was tightly wedged on the dog s head Special Case 2 Figure 12. A stray puppy suffering from a maggot wound treated in the field 9
Special Case - 3 Figure 13. Dr Amulya and her team successfully managed to catch, restrain and remove a fish hook from a cat s mouth 10
Figure 14. Dogs released back to their original locations following treatment at SGWTA 11
Thank you to South Goa Welfare Trust for Animals for taking in all our rescue cases again this month! Other News Party time - On Friday afternoon 1 st February 2019 the whole of the Mission Rabies Goa team took a wellearned break from vaccinating dogs, surveillance and educational activities to recognise and celebrate the incredible achievements of 2018. Over 97,000 dogs vaccinated and zero human rabies deaths! The party was organised in a beautiful garden and great fun was had by all (Figure 15). An array of games were played including pass the parcel, musical chairs, pin the tail on the donkey/vaccinate the dog, ball and spoon race and sack race. Everyone also had a chance to test their limbo skills! Prizes were won, cake was eaten and the afternoon ended on a great high with some Indian dancing. Overseas - Mission Rabies Goa Project Manager Julie Corfmat took time out from her busy schedule to travel to Ghana in West Africa to assist with their first ever mass vaccination campaign (Figure 16). The project was headed by Jordana Burdon Bailey Mission Rabies Africa Projects Director and ten international volunteers also participated. The campaign was a great success with over 4300 dogs vaccinated in just ten days and 82% vaccination coverage achieved across the district! WVS - Mission Rabies welcomed another batch of WVS participants for a morning session of vaccination. The participants helped with administering vaccinations, data collecting, writing vaccination cards and handing out emergency hotline cards to members (Figure 17). Team training All team members underwent refresher training during February 2019. The training was conducted by Dr Gowri, Dr Sumanth and Julie and covered rabies health and safety, disease control and vaccine administration (Figure 18). Even Julie s dog Benny was present for the training session and was happy to be used as a demo dog for pretend vaccination! 12
Figure 15. Fun and games for the Mission Rabies Goa team to celebrate the achievements of 2018! 13
Figure 16. Julie Mission Rabies Goa Project Manager travelled to Ghana 14
Figure 17. WVS participants in the field with the Mission Rabies teams 15
Figure 18. Dr Gowri presented on rabies health and safety (top), Benny decided to take a nap in-between training sessions (bottom) 16
Mission Rabies Goa Project Full Vaccination Summary Year Vaccination Total 2013 5,767 2014 24,306 2015 56,681 2016 51,294 2017 96,033 2018 97,043 2019 to date 17,469 Thank you to all our supporters! 17