The Federal Capital Territory Administration has commenced a two-week mass vaccination exercise aimed at immunising between 15,000 and 20,000 dogs and cats against rabies across the six area councils of the territory.
The campaign, being implemented by the Agriculture and Rural Development Secretariat, follows the confirmation of rabies cases in parts of the FCT.
The Mandate Secretary of the secretariat, Sulieman Ango, disclosed this on Wednesday while inspecting the vaccination exercise in Gwagwalada Area Council.
According to him, more than 100 veterinary personnel have been deployed to strategic locations to ensure that the exercise reaches residents across the territory.
Ango said the vaccination campaign would cover all 62 wards in the FCT, with designated centres operating daily throughout the two-week exercise.
He said, “We have the firm conviction that by vaccinating 15,000 to 20,000 dogs and cats, we are going to stop the spread of the virus.
“From what we have recorded so far, two weeks is sufficient time for our team to cover this scope.”
He explained that the intervention was particularly important to prevent the disease from spreading beyond Gwagwalada and Kwali Area Councils, where cases had previously been detected.
The FCT official added that no fresh cases had been identified outside the two affected area councils since veterinary teams began responding to the outbreak.
Ango appealed to residents to cooperate with the veterinary officials and make their dogs and cats available for vaccination.
He stressed that the exercise was free and would be conducted at designated vaccination centres across the six area councils.
Also speaking, the Director of Veterinary Services, Dr Karnak Dandam, described rabies as a deadly but preventable disease, emphasising the importance of vaccinating animals.
Dandam warned that rabies becomes almost invariably fatal when clinical symptoms develop in an infected person.
He said, “Rabies is a very deadly disease. Once a rabid dog bites a human being and the clinical signs set in, there is no survival, but it is 100 per cent preventable once the dogs are vaccinated.”
The FCTA had on July 15 confirmed eight cases of rabies and two deaths in the territory. The development prompted the administration to announce plans for a territory-wide vaccination campaign.
The administration has subsequently urged residents to ensure that their dogs and cats are vaccinated and to promptly report suspected rabies cases to veterinary authorities.
