Rabies vaccine scandal bites dept boss
Same firm supplied jabs for 25 years
A vaccine procurement scandal that erupted amid the rabies outbreak has prompted the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry to set up a probe to look into alleged irregularities.
The panel will investigate claims that the Department of Livestock Development (DLD) purchased rabies vaccines from a single supplier for decades.
The issue was brought up yesterday by the media as department director-general Apai Suttisunk addressed a press conference on the department’s efforts to contain the rabies situation which has killed six people in the first three months of this year.
It involves a claim that the department bought vaccines from a single company for 25 years and the company in question is connected to the wife of a former DLD deputy director-general.
Critics also questioned whether the vaccines purchased by the department were substandard.
Mr Apai, who appeared reluctant to discuss the issue, said the company had not done business with the department since 2014.
He said the deputy director-general in question was transferred to another department last year.
Mr Apai said the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry has set up a fact-finding committee to investigate the scandal.
The department chief also insisted the rabies vaccine procurement process was transparent and the specifications were not rigged to favour any particular bidder.
The scandal is seen as another setback for the DLD which came under fire for its handling of the rabies vaccination programme of free-roaming dogs and cats after the spread of the virus in 24 provinces.
At a seminar on the rabies situation on Tuesday, Dr Thirawat Hemachutha, of Chulalongkorn University’s faculty of medicine, cast doubts about the vaccination and sterilisation programmes.
“If we met the target set in the vaccination programme, why do we have this situation? If we had the animals sterilised, why did the number of strays increase?” he said.
Mr Apai said the department did not make up the figures, saying livestock authorities were working with local bodies in giving the vaccine to about 8.24 million stray dogs and cats.
Of this, the department procured 1 million doses of rabies vaccine annually, half for use and the other as stockpile, he said, adding that there were enough supplies of vaccine.
Of the target, 2.4 million dogs and cats were vaccinated, he said, adding the number covered those within the radius of five kilometres where infected animals were found.
By June this year, 80% of target animals will be vaccinated, he said.
At the seminar, Dr Thirawat called on relevant authorities to come clean about the figures shown to the public and to change the current approach to dealing with the spread.
Designating rabies-hit areas as green, yellow and red zones were misleading because it made people take the situation less seriously than they should do.
According to the DLD guidelines, the green zone indicates rabies has not been found in humans or animals for more than two years.
The yellow zone denotes areas where rabies has been observed only in animals within two years while red is for areas where rabies has been found in both humans and animals during the same period.
He also noted that the rabies situation in Thailand started to show worrisome signs in 2016 and intensified this year.
Lack of coordination between the Agriculture Ministry and the Public Health Ministry was in part to blame.
He suggested that the Public Health Ministry adopt the World Health Organisation’s vaccine guidelines because they are more effective in preventing the infection.
Veterinarian Pornpitak Phanla, a livestock official, said the major cause of human fatalities is the failure to get treated after being bitten and most people are unaware that chances of survival are low when an infected individual shows symptoms.
Bangkok governor Aswin Kwanmuang yesterday said the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) agreed to lend rabies vaccines to neighbouring provinces.
Speaking after meeting with authorities from six provinces, he said City Hall has sufficient supplies to go around and for loans.
He assured that the BMA’s rabies vaccines are standard and are procured from a supplier certified by the Food and Drug Administration.
The massacre of temple dogs in southern Thailand in the wake of the rabies fear frenzy is not only cruel and sad, it also reflects state authorities’ mindset that violence is the way to eliminate perceived enemies.
Despite insistence from state authorities that they would not resort to “set zero” the population of stray dogs — meaning killing them all — to stop the outbreak of rabies this year, what is happening on the ground is heart-rending — and maddening.
Thanks to a viral video clip on social media, the public got to see a group of livestock officials collecting dead dogs from a mass poisoning at Wat Khao Pridi in Thung Song district, Nakhon Si Thammarat province. The video also shows an official begging for “understanding” amid angry curses and cries from the woman who took the video. His group later frantically fled the scene.
Those guys were only following orders from their superiors. That’s understandable. What is unacceptable is the cruelty of killing all temple dogs without an attempt to screen and quarantine them. This mass poisoning of dogs also took place at a temple, supposedly a centre of Buddhist compassion. How did it happen? Who at the temple sent for the livestock officials and endorsed the massacre?
All eyes are now on the monks, and that’s not good.
The rounding up of stray dogs, mass poisoning and killings have been taking place since early this year. In February, the public was incensed when more than 200 dogs and cats in Chiang Rai were killed en masse. Officials explained it away as a necessary attempt to control rabies when the contagion rate, they claimed, has more than doubled this year.
Concern turned into panic when the Livestock Department declared over 30 provinces as rabies threat areas, followed by all-out anti-rabies vaccination campaigns.
With about one million stray dogs in the country, the “set zero” idea emerged on social media, setting off a storm of debate on how best to control the population of stray dogs and cats.
Amid heated debate, the rounding up of strays — including those already vaccinated by dog lover groups — goes on in various parts of the country. There were many red faces when it was found the rabies outbreak this year was caused by “substandard” vaccines.
Corruption was definitely involved in the fake vaccines scandal. Due to fake vaccines, the vaccination routines were disrupted. This year, as a result, lives have been lost and healthy animals have been killed en masse. Yet there are no attempts to find the culprits nor to fix the loopholes.
Then, without explanation, the Livestock Department made an abrupt U-turn.
Last week, on March 13, the public was puzzled when the Livestock Department suddenly announced that the current rabies situation is actually no worse than last year; so far, six people have died from rabies compared to 11 last year and 13 the year before. In short, there is no rabies outbreak.
But the “set zero” momentum has already taken a life of its own. Despite the about-face by their top bosses, livestock officials on the ground continue the rounding up of strays, although many of them have already been vaccinated.
On social media, the “set zero” proponents still insist wiping out the strays is the quickest and cheapest way to eliminate rabies. It doesn’t matter to them if it’s true or not. The belief is firm and fixed: If it’s your enemy, eliminate it. Use violence if you must.
But the fact is half of infected dogs are household pets. One of the main reasons for rabies is poor coverage of anti-rabies vaccination campaigns due to state efficiency and a lack of public awareness. The lack of inexpensive anti-rabies vaccines for humans after they are infected also plays a big part in the state’s failure to prevent casualties from rabies.
Insisting that eliminating rabies through mass killings of strays is not only an easy way out through violence, it also leaves the ineffective — and often corrupt — centralised bureaucracies off the hook.
Raw violence cannot root out a complex problem. Getting rid of strays is not equal to getting rid of rabies. When people continue to dump unwanted dogs with impunity, when comprehensive neutering and anti-rabies jabs are lacking, and when private efforts to take care of abandoned dogs are left to struggle alone without state support, the strays will stay. As will the public health risk.
A complex problem demands a complex solution. It demands thinking through different aspects of the challenge and involving different stakeholders instead of assuming the inefficient, topdown authorities have a solution.
Yet, violence is most always an easy option when fear reigns, throwing reason out the window.
That’s why when strays are thought to be the main cause of the rabies outbreak, people shout: “Kill them all.”
Rooted in raw fear, this belief that violence is the ultimate answer to eliminate an enemy is consistent with many state policies. Examples abound:
When the forest peoples are believed to be the cause of deforestation, evict them or send them to jail.
When migrant workers are viewed as national security threats, oppress them. Better still, make exploitation legal with inhumane laws.
When ethnic Malay Muslims in the deep South are viewed as outsiders, treat them as second-class citizens. If they raise hell and call for justice, call them terrorists to justify state violence to silence them.
When people take to the streets to protest state oppression or policies that destroy their livelihoods, arrest them for disrupting orderliness.
When people meet to push for electoral democracy, discredit them for being pro-Thaksin and arrest them for breaking the anti-assembly law.
When people question the status quo, call them anti-establishment, intimidate them, arrest them, silence them.
It doesn’t matter that forest people have been living in forests for generations, that the migrants are equal human beings, that the Malay Muslims have long been oppressed, that community rights over local resources and freedom of expression — and tolerance for differences — are necessary for peace and hope for the future.
The current debates on strays in social media is a positive phenomena. They help explore different aspects of the problems and different solutions. They also foster the ability to listen to different opinions from one another.
What must end is state violence through the mass killing of strays. This mentality — the obsession with violent solutions — perpetuates state oppression at every level in society. Because if we are seen as an enemy of the state, we too will be dealt with violence like stray dogs.
When strays are thought to be the main cause of the rabies outbreak, people shout: ‘Kill them all.’