By IANS,
Lucknow : Uttar Pradesh will soon include rabies vaccination in the government’s routine immunisation programme as a large number of people in the state fall prey to this disease every year, a health official said Monday.
“We are busy finalising the modalities to include rabies vaccine in the immunisation programme,” Director General (medical and health) I.S. Srivastava told IANS.
This move is being launched in collaboration with the Uttar Pradesh chapter of the Association for Prevention and Control of Rabies (APCR), he said.
The routine immunisation programme currently covers six diseases – tuberculosis, diptheria, tetanus, measles, pertusis and Japanese encephalitis.
Nearly 3,000 people die every year from rabies in Uttar Pradesh, the official said. As of now, there is no treatment for full-blown rabies, he added.