Nigeria Records 17 Rabies Fatalities In 22 Months

Nigeria has recorded 17 fatalities of rabies between January, 2021 and October 2022 and within the period, 53 out of 232 bite cases from predominantly dogs have been linked with confirmed cases of rabies in 11 states of Anambra, Bauchi, Cross-River, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Enugu, Gombe, Imo, Kaduna, Ogun, and Plateau.

This was disclosed by the director of Federal Veterinary and Pest Control Services who doubles as chief veterinary officer of Nigeria, Dr Maimuna Habib.

As of 2019, data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) shows that in Nigeria approximately 55, 000 people die each year from human rabies with rabid dogs accounting for about 94 per cent of confirmed human infection.

According to Dr Habib, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is making several efforts towards control, prevention and total rabies eradication.

Among other efforts by the federal government, she said that the federal government had conducted mass vaccination campaigns against rabies in all the geopolitical zones including deployment of an E-data collection tool for real-time data collection from the fields and monitoring of the vaccinations.

Special adviser on media and publicity to the president, Mr Femi Adesina, has lamented that majority of Nigerians prefer negative reports or setbacks suffered by military and security agencies against terrorists, bandits, and other criminals.

Adesina disclosed this at the annual ‘Security and Emergency Management Awards’ (SAEMA) organised by PRNigeria held in Abuja yesterday.

Adesina lauded the media house for consistently providing the general public with authoritative and factual information on security-related issues and matters.

“PRNigeria is my go-to on insurgency and banditry reports. It is one news medium which many people do not doubt its reportage on security issues,” said the presidential spokesman.

President of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) Mallam Mukhtar Sirajo, in a keynote address, while decrying worsening insecurity in the country, highlighted the importance of strategic communication as a panacea for mitigating all kinds of socio-ethnic tensions.

Sirajo recalled how their Institute recently deployed strategic communication as a tool for enhancing national integration in the contemporary Nigerian State, which he said is divided.

The director of defence information, Major General Jimmy Akpor commended the PRNigeria for hosting the annual awards on security and communication.

“In the military, we trust the credibility and the independent editorial of PRNigeria as it reports activities in the sectors with fairness, accuracy, and facts that also protect our national security and interest,” Gen Akpor added.