Dog bites

The real battle, therefore, is not fought when a patient reaches a hospital with encephalitis. It is fought immediately after the bite. Pakistan must therefore stop treating dog bites as isolated incidents and start treating them as a public-health and municipal-management challenge.

There are encouraging examples. In 2022, the Capital Development Authority established a Stray Dogs Population Control Centre in Islamabad, with capacity for hundreds of dogs and facilities for vaccination, sterilisation, treatment and care. More importantly, the initiative recognises that stray-dog management requires something more sophisticated than periodic killing campaigns.

This is the direction other cities should consider. For decades, municipalities have often responded to public complaints through sporadic culling. Such campaigns may provide temporary relief, but they do not solve the underlying problem.

Where food remains abundant and breeding continues, dog populations recover. Cities need programmes that combine vaccination, sterilisation, identification and monitoring of free-roaming dogs. Dangerous or rabid animals must be removed from public spaces, while healthy animals should be managed through sustained vaccination and sterilisation programmes.

Waste management is equally important. Open garbage and poorly managed food waste provide an abundant food source for stray populations. A city that cannot manage its waste will struggle to manage its stray-dog population.

But managing dogs is only one side of the problem. The other is protecting people. A dog bite should never be dismissed as a minor injury.

Even a scratch can warrant medical assessment. Public awareness campaigns must make one message clear: do not wait for symptoms. Seek medical attention immediately after a potentially rabid animal bite or scratch.

Treatment must also be accessible. A person bitten in a rural district should not have to travel for hours or depend on personal connections to find life-saving vaccines. Rabies post-exposure treatment should be reliably available through a clearly identified network of public health facilities.

The numbers show the scale of the challenge. In Karachi, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre has reported thousands of dog-bite cases this year, while Indus Hospital has managed more than 13,000. These figures should not simply fill hospital reports.

They should inform municipal planning. Pakistan needs a One Health approach, linking human health, animal health and the environment. Health departments, municipal authorities, veterinary services, schools and communities must work together.

Authorities should map dog-bite hotspots, monitor rabies cases, vaccinate and sterilise free-roaming dogs, improve waste management and ensure immediate access to post-exposure treatment. Most importantly, the response must be sustained. A responsible city should be able to protect children from dangerous dogs while managing healthy animals humanely.

It should be able to reduce free-roaming populations without relying on indiscriminate killing. The current Chief Minister of Punjab has a vision to increase road safety and liveability in Punjab, especially Lahore. If this problem of dog bites can be solved, a sense of security will prevail amongst the residents.

Rabies is not an unavoidable consequence of urban life. Pakistan's cities need to stop reacting to dog attacks one complaint at a time. They need long-term, humane and scientifically managed dog-population programmes, better waste management, accessible vaccination and sustained public awareness.