FCTA Committed To Curbing the Spread Of Rabies In FCT

By: Zakari Aliyu

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) will spare no effort to tackle the outbreak and spread of rabies virus in the Territory.

Director Veterinary Services Department of the FCT Agriculture & Rural Development Secretariat (ARDS), Dr. Regina Ada Adulugba, gave this assurance when she led a team of Veterinary Health Officials of the Secretariat to monitor the house to house rabies vaccination exercise that is currently ongoing in the FCT.

Dr. Adulugba disclosed that the Secretariat was working closely with the Department of Veterinary and Pest Control Services of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), which donated 47,000 doses of antirabies vaccines to the Secretariat to carry out the exercise.

Her words: “The FCT has fully keyed into the National Anti-Rabies Programme which is coordinated by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and “accordingly, we have received delivery of the vaccines, which will be judiciously used for this exercise”.

“I would like to appreciate our Secretary, Mallam Abubakar Ibrahim, who has also approved the logistics required to carry out this very important assignment which as you know is taking place simultaneously in all the six Area Councils of the FCT,”
she said .

The Director stressed the need for dog and cat owners in the FCT to vaccinate their animals against the rabies virus, which according to her is not only deadly but has no effective cure.

“We want to appeal to residents to take advantage of this unique opportunity offered by government to bring their animals to get vaccinated. These are domestic animals that live closely to us and our families. For now, no effective cure has been found for the virus which is why the emphasis all over the world is on prevention through mass vaccination”, Dr. Adulugba added.