Human rabies cases in Sarawak alarming

A total of 14,394 animal bites were reported this year, with an average of 350 cases per week or 50 cases per day. 

Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Dr Sim Kui Hian said the Sarawak Health Department received a total 94,307 animal bite reports from July 1, 2017 to November 18 this year. 

“The number of human rabies cases is alarming. There are 17 cases reported in 2023 until November 18, compared with 14 cases in 2022 and 10 cases in 2021,” he said. 

Dr Sim, who is also the Minister for Public Health, Housing and Local Government said this when delivering his ministerial winding-up speech during the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting on Tuesday. 

He added that to date, there are only seven survivors since the rabies outbreak started.

“As part of the effort to reduce the human rabies cases, the Sarawak Health Department has increased the number of post bite clinics from 31 facilities before June 2023 to 107 facilities, all of which are equipped with anti-rabies vaccines,” he said. 

These include 78 Federal Ministry of Health (MoH) facilities and 29 private facilities. 

“In the meantime, the Sarawak Health Department has just approved another 41 health clinics as post bite clinics and expect to run the service by the end of this year once training has been given to the staff and the vaccine stock is supplied,” he said. 

On COVID-19 in Sarawak, Dr Sim mentioned that as of November 18, a total of 328,256 COVID-19 cases and 1,793 deaths due to COVID-19 were reported in Sarawak, since the first reported case on March 13, 2020. 

“A total of 325,330 cases or approximately 99.11 percent have recovered from the disease,” he said. 

As of November 18, he said, there were a total of eight deaths caused by COVID-19 this year, resulting in a mortality rate of 0.32 per 100,000 population, compared to 167 death cases with mortality rate of 5.41 per 100,000 population reported in 2022. 

“The utilisation rate of Intensive Care Units (ICUs) for COVID-19 has been minimal with occasional admission since Epid Week 25 (mid-June 2023). Thus, the hospital has enough capacity to support the current needs,” said Dr Sim.