KUCHING: Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Dr Sim Kui Hian today called on government agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to work with the state government to achieve a zero-rabies target by 2030 in Sarawak.
He said he expected the agencies and NGOs to recommend strategies and solutions to the state government from their frequent meetings and conferences on rabies to free Sarawak of the disease.
"We want solutions. So from all these meetings, we must come up with strategies and solutions," he said after opening the Rabies in Borneo conference here.
Dr Sim, who is also the state Public Health, Housing and Local Government minister, said Sarawak, unfortunately, was the only state in Malaysia registering cases of rabies.
He said the zero-rabies target by 2030 was set by the World Health Organisation.
Dr Sim said getting rid of rabies was a great challenge to Sarawak because pets, such as dogs, were part of the people's life, including in the longhouses and villages.
"But in Japan, for example,dogs are not part of people's life. The dogs are just pets. So that's why we have to adopt whatever solutions that are available to us. We have to come up with strategies and solutions in our own ways," he said, adding that one of the solutions was to vaccinate dogs.
Dr Sim said the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee had taken over the management role of rabies from the state ministry of Food Industries, Commodities and Regional Development, this year, indicating that the state government was taking rabies seriously.
Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg, in a speech read by Dr Sim earlier, said it had become evident that rabies was a serious public health threat.
"In Borneo, this disease is endemic. Globally, rabies is estimated to kill over 59,000 people each year, predominantly in Asia and Africa.
"According to the State Health Department statistics, since the rabies outbreak began in 2017, Sarawak has reported 81 human rabies infections, with 74 fatalities," he said, adding that six cases in humans were reported so far this year.
He said from Jan 1 to Aug 31 this year, a total of 12,587 animal bite cases were reported in Sarawak, adding that on average, 360 animal bite cases were reported weekly.
He said of these cases, 6,966 (55.34 per cent) were cat bites or scratches, 5,451 (43.30 per cent) were dog bites, and the remaining 170 involved other animals.
He added 8,703 cases (69.14 per cent) involved bites or scratches from pets, while 3,884 cases (30.86 per cent) involved wild or stray animals.
The premier said that most animal rabies cases in Sarawak occurred in dogs, saying that this was because dogs were the main reservoir of rabies in the state.
He said the Sarawak government was committed to rabies control and prevention, including implementing a number of measures to control and prevent rabies, such as mass vaccination of dogs, licensing and microchipping, dog population control, awareness campaigns, surveillance and monitoring of the disease.
He said the state government had also formed the Immune Belt Enforcement Team under the Sarawak Security and Enforcement Unit to prevent rabies along the Sarawak-Kalimantan border that spans over 1,032km from Lundu to Lawas.