Provincial Veterinarian Antonio Mutia is calling on local officials to throw away the “ningas cogon” attitude and ensure a sustained campaign against rabies, which has claimed two lives since January this year in Negros Oriental.

In 2007, Mutia said there were four deaths from rabies, but this year, for the first two months alone, there were already two persons killed by the disease, and the number could increase if the campaign against it will not be continued vigorously.

Mutia said that last week, the provincial government, with local government officials launched the intensified rabies eradication program in order “to eradicate rabies in Negros Oriental in 2010.”

Representatives from the different local government units in the province even formulated an action plan embodying their commitment to the campaign for the elimination of rabies, he said.

In 2004, he said, a similar campaign was launched, but the headway was gained only in the first year of implementation, because in the succeeding years, the campaign was not sustained.

“At the outset, everybody was so enthusiastic with the program, but it did not take long for that enthusiasm to lose its steam. That is ningas cogon,” Mutia said.

He, however, is optimistic that with the latest launching of the anti-rabies campaign, the effort would now be sustained, especially with the effectivity of Republic Act 9482, or the Anti Rabies Act of 2007.

Under the law, LGUs should be at the forefront in the campaign against rabies.*RG

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