KOZHIKODE: The number of people falling prey to animal bites is increasing in the district, the Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP) data shows. On Friday, a rabid dog bit four people in Vanimel, including a schoolteacher. The dog was later beaten to death. Though the city corporation and other local bodies had started measures to end the menace, there was no respite.
Officials say the animal bites recorded at the IDSP every month on an average are more than 2,000, and they are mainly dog and cat bites. When the total cases registered in 2015 was 29,485, this year up to June, they have crossed 12,909. The maximum number of animal bites were reported in the month of March - 660 dog bites and 1,672 cat bites at the Kozhikode centre.
Since the data included the cases from Government Medical College Hospital, Kozhikode, it can have cases reported in neighbouring districts also. The lack of funds has hit Animal Birth Control programme to control stray dogs. The baby steps for the same was made in 2014 in three corporations in the state - Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode and Kochi - and next to nothing happened till date.
