Children

Children are the main victims of rabies. Rabies bites on children usually occur to the face, head, neck and upper extremities. Unfortunately these areas carry the greatest risk of infection. When a child is infected with the rabies in India, as in many other countries, the chance for survival is limited. Dying of rabies is a very painful and debilitating process. The only aid to this discomfort is constant anaesthesia, which many countries can not always supply.

Due to the complete absence of any successful medical treatment for clinical rabies, many rabies victims die at home rather than being admitted to a hospital. In Rajasthan, it has been known that the rabid victims are chained to a metal bed, to die in the most atrocious suffering.

The Project will provide protection to the estimated 211,602 children of Jodhpur. Help us protect the children of Jodhpur by making a dog safe to play with.

You can help

Read the sad story of Arif and Vinit*

Arif,* a lively eight-year-old schoolboy, was bitten on the hand while playing with his three-month-old puppy. His parents cleaned the centimetre-long wound with antiseptic and thought nothing more of it - even after the puppy died suddenly five days later. Ten days after Arif was bitten, when he developed a high fever, his parents took him to a doctor who prescribed antibiotics. Within a few days, the boy's symptoms took an alarming turn - Arif became confused, refused to eat or drink, and couldn't sleep.

Arif was rushed back to the doctor who, this time, was told about the puppy bite. The doctor suspected rabies and offered Arif a glass of water. Overcome with terror, Arif went into spasms. The doctor immediately referred Arif to the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), in Bangalore. "I felt pity staring at this little boy who was going to die just because he had played with a puppy," his doctor recalls.

Vinit,* a bright young 14 year-old in New Delhi loved school and was very close to his large extended family. One weekend, he was visiting relatives when their pet dog licked him. Nobody paid any attention to the incident until a few days later, when the young man developed symptoms of rabies. The dog, too, was found to be rabid, despite a previous rabies vaccination. Both Vinit and the dog died within days of each other.

People were stunned, according to Vinit's family doctor. "How could Vinit die from just a lick - one from a dog that had been vaccinated?" This can occur when an animal doesn't receive an annual booster shot or if the original vaccine was ineffective. Anti-rabies vaccine loses its effectiveness if stored at temperatures above eight degrees centigrade. Moreover, the vaccine's shelf life is very short - just six months. Vinit's doctor cautions that you don't have to be bitten to get rabies. It's enough if an open wound or the mucous membranes of the eyes, nose or mouth come into contact with the saliva of a rabid animal. In all probability this is what happened in Vinit's case.

(Source: http://www.rd-india.com/rabies.htm)

Dogs

Jodhpur is home to an estimated 35,000 street dogs. By undertaking our Program, not only are we making dogs safe to play with but will ensure that the dogs have a better life. By preventing rabies in a single dog, 211,000 additional infections and deaths will be avoided!!

There is a culture of caring for street dogs in India (see culture section) however street dog welfare is likely to be poor if the population is not controlled. Competition for limited resources, not only leads to malnourishment in some dogs, particularly pregnant and lactating bitches, but also a high rate of spread of infectious disease and parasites.

For over 100 years, India's civil authorities have mass slaughter dogs as they tried to control the stray dog population. They have killed street dogs by poisoning, electrocution or other means at designated sites or poisoned them in situ. However, without altering the habitat, these attempts have been futile and only temporarily reduce the dog population.

Our Project aims to provide an alternative, humane approach to rabies control which is support by the public health experts, so that dogs across the world can be saved rather than slaughtered.

Help us make a dog safe to play with.