Dogs may be ‘executed’ for spreading rabies

Unvaccinated dogs across Meme Division, Southwest Region, may be shot dead following the heightened number of deaths from rabies infection through dog bites.

Experts say, with the current situation, either the dogs are vaccinated or shot dead to safe-guard the life of the population.

The District Medical Officer, DMO, for the Kumba Health District, Philip Mbahmulu Nkemonto Achu, made the disclosure August 7, at the Kumba Women’s Empowerment Centre, during a meeting organised to evaluate the challenges awaiting Kumba as the Higher Technical Teachers Training College HTTTC kicks off in October this year.

The Kumba Health District comprises Kumba I, II, III, Mbonge and Dikome Balue Subdivisions.

According to Dr Achu, who is equally an expert in community health, the situation is worse in Mbonge Subdivision where cases of people suffering from dog bites have become rampant in recent weeks. The situation, he said, has provoked an emergency health problem because most of the dogs are not vaccinated.

On the issue of the industrial zone, the participants reasoned that, if there are no proper industries in Kumba to complement the training that will be carried out in HTTTC, the impact of the institution on the Anglophone polity, both in terms of development and interest in the technical education sector, will be a fiasco.

The DMO recalled that a nine-year-old girl, rushed in from Mbonge Subdivision two weeks earlier, after she was bitten by a dog died of rabies. He said veterinary personnel have been told to be on the alert while pharmacy officials have been urged to bring in new stocks of the rabies vaccine.

Besides the rabies, Achu stated that if proper health measures are not put in place, the coming of HTTTC to Kumba may breed disaster, coupled with the availability of fake drugs all over the jurisdiction. He added that an increase in population calls for quality potable water, decent housing, given that overcrowding could lead to meningitis.

Stakeholders at the meeting equally discussed the need for better roads, a defined industrial zone and security, among other issues, as key to the successful hosting of the HTTTC in Kumba.

Speaking at the meeting, Prince Ekale Mukete, former Mayor of Kumba I, explained that there was a need for Kumba boundaries to be redefined so that the City Council could get enough resources to play the politics of development. Ekale averred that there would be no metropolitan Kumba if the City wasn’t reorganised to give it a real path of future growth.

In the meantime, a committee has been set up to source for resource persons and summon another follow-up meeting to push forward the development agenda, given that most of the development stakeholders, including the Government Delegate, Mayors , Parliamentarians and Senators, failed to honour the invitation.

According to the organiser, Chief Asaba, who is an educationist, his main aim of the meeting was to ignite debates that should move development forward in the metropolis of Kumba, the economic hub or the Southwest Region.