HELP came at a time when the Bohol Rabies Prevention and Eradication Council (BRPEC) desperately needs a partner who can bankroll the staggering costs of implementing a pilot anti-rabies drive province-wide.
The new partner intends to document the collaborative effort to come up with a template for future support program in their disease elimination campaign in other countries, Dr. Stella Marie Lapiz said.
The partner, a Scottish non-government organization has agreed to partner with Bohol to pilot a province-wide anti-rabies campaign, said the provincial veterinarian during a meeting held Thursday at the Governor’s Mansion.
Dr. Lapiz said Alliance for Rabies Control (ARC), a registered Scottish international but United Kingdom-based non-government organization has told local authorities about their intent to bankroll about P7M for the Bohol anti-rabies program.
The Provincial Government on the other hand would also complement the fund source through its financial equity and manpower in a collaborative effort to sustain the provincial drive in the next 4 years, Lapiz appraised the council members during the recent meeting.
“We are very happy about the development in as much as a rabies free Bohol would boost our dream of becoming the country’s top tourism destination,” she stressed.
The good news also came at a time when spearheading authorities see the provincial rabies prevention and eradication program fall short of its targets due to coordination snags.
Months ago here, anti-rabies rabies authorities raised the alarm over reports that Bohol has topped Central Visayas as it records the most number of animal and human rabies cases.
With the implementation of the programs, BRPEC has reported a major score when reported bite cases in the first quarter of 2008 dipped to 80% compared to data from last year.
This however is not worth celebrating, Dr. Lapiz said, as she points to a general aim of totally eliminating canine and human rabies in Bohol by 2010.
Groundwork has been set up to prepare the structures for a community-based program implementation, while on-going dog population control and massive elimination is saturated province-wide, a status program report bared.
Meanwhile, corollary to the program is a massive public education, which attempts to put an early rabies awareness in the school curriculum.
All of these while private and government sector partner in putting up animal bite and treatment centers to cope with the possible contamination. (rachiu/PIA)
