Progress towards rabies being a notifiable disease in the State of Karnataka

An announcement at the 16th National Conference of Association of Prevention and Control of Rabies in India (APCRICON 2014) held on 5-6 July in Mysore demonstrated for the first time a political willingness to make rabies a notifiable disease in India.

Prior to inaugurating the Annual Conference of APCRI, the State Health and Family Welfare Minister U.T. Khader had a meeting with Dr.S.Abdul Rahman, President of APCRI and Country Head GARC, India, Dr. Mahendra, Chairman Organising Committee of APCRICON 2014, and Dr.Pushpa Sarkar, Director of Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences,  wherein the importance of making Rabies a notifiable disease was stressed by Dr.Abdul Rahman.

During his inaugural address, the Minister made a commitment by saying “Rabies, like the malaria and polio diseases, must be made a notified disease by the Central Government in order to adopt preventive measures against rabies, which is highly infectious and severe, affecting domestic animals, wildlife conservation, public health and livestock economies” 

A notified (or notifiable) disease is any disease that is required by law to be reported to government authorities.  If rabies is declared as a notified disease, then it attracts various provisions of the notified disease regulation act which enlists various responsibilities on the part of the individual doctors, health workers and the community medicine people, specific authorities can be held responsible for an outbreak, and there will be more awareness about it. Surveillance data can be collected and analysed, resulting in a more accurate evaluation of the rabies burden in an area. This can then inform decisions on rabies control efforts that can save human lives.

The minister said he intends to declare rabies as a "notified disease" in Karnataka State (in the South of India) and urge the union government to follow suit across India.

He also called for prevention rather than cure and more awareness in schools on the risks of rabies. "Most of the people, especially the children's exposure to dog bites happen in the areas where they have no awareness about the severity of the dog bites and their fatality" he said, adding that awareness among the parents and people to protect their children from unwarranted dog bites will play a great role in reducing the incidents of rabies in the country. 

“In case of the occurrence of such diseases, we blame the animals. But we humans are to be blamed because we need to keep our environment clean and healthy” he pointed out and highlighted  that citizens, animal lovers and NGOs need to take a pro-active role in rabies control instead of holding government responsible for everything. Minister Khader said that India can be rabies free if all join hands and work together. "It is a preventable disease. Conferences like this should come out with suggestions and recommendations on eradicating rabies," he stated. 

GARC previoulsy initiated a project on rabies being a notifiable disease in India by writing to all members of the Indian Parliament .Though there was a sympathetic response, the then Union Minister of Health had replied that rabies was a reportable disease (which does not have legal enforcement). Efforts were on at every rabies forum to pursue the goal and this is the first time that a commitment has been given by a Health Minister of any state in India.

APCRI and GARC India will follow this up with the Government of Karnataka through Minister Khader and if it is made notifiable in Karnataka then it will be easy to cite the example and make it notifiable in other states as well as get a central directive.

Contributed by Dr S. Abdul Rahman, President of APCRI and Country Head GARC, India, partly based on media report in the Star of Mysore and the Times of India newspapers.