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With an increase in dog bite cases being reported from various districts of Kerala, the state government has made available 26,000 vials of anti-rabies vaccine in public hospitals in the southern state. The state Health Department, in a statement, has said that the anti-rabies vaccines (IDRV) have been made available after being tested by the Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL). It also said that more vials of the vaccine would be made available after they are tested by CDL. The step was being taken as there has been a large increase in the number of people coming to hospitals for anti-rabies vaccine due to bites from dogs and cats, the Health Department statement said. It also said that reportedly dog bite cases have increased by two to three times in many districts of the state and therefore, Kerala Medical Services Corporation (KMSCL) was taking steps to procure more vaccines and distribute them to hospitals. Meanwhile, a 53-year old woman died of suspected rabies infection in the .
The Centre on the occasion of World Rabies Day on Tuesday launched a national action plan NAPRE for the elimination of dog mediated rabies by 2030. Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Minister Parshottam Rupala unveiled the National Action Plan for dog Mediated Rabies Elimination by 2030 (NAPRE). "The Ministers urged all the States and UTs to make Rabies a notifiable Disease," an official statement said. The two Union ministers also launched the Joint Inter-Ministerial Declaration Support Statement for the elimination of dog mediated rabies from India by 2030 through the One Health Approach. The Union Health Minister also spoke on the human cost extracted by the disease. Drawing from his own experience of contracting a zoonotic disease while treating an animal, Mandaviya acknowledged that most victims of the disease are those who are in the most productive years of their life. Zoonotic diseases like Rabies claims the lives of people in th