Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) were here last week to observe the implementation of the Provincial Rabies Eradication and Prevention Program. Among the WHO technical officers who thronged here were Dr. Takeshi Kasai, regional adviser in Communicable Disease Surveillance Response and Dr. Bee Lee Ong, technical officer (Zoonotic Disease Epidemiologist). National Professional Officer Dr. Nerissa Dominguez and Raffy A. Deray, program manager of National Rabies Prevention and Control Program of the National Center for Disease Prevention and Control (NHCDPC) of the Department of Health (DOH) joined the visitors.

They visited local partners and discussed the rabies program implementation in an attempt to come up with an  innovative model strategy and requested to observed how extensive is the province's campaign efforts and the degree of support it gained from the Boholano communities. The visitors were both impressed and amused upon learning that even barangay folks that they interviewed were able to answer their queries and show in graphic details, their understanding and the implementation of the province's rabies eradication and control program.

They plan to incorporate the data from the Bohol experience with programs of other nations in the Western Pacific region. In 1999, the provincial government embarked a five-year program, Bohol Eradication of Rabies Program (B-ERAP) which also aimed to totally eradicate rabies by 2004. However, incidences of both canine and human rabies continued to increase despite the multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary approach of the program. The Provincial Rabies Coordinating Council chaired by Governor Erico Aumentado reactivated and improved the program starting last year, with the aim to rid the province of rabies by 2010. An initial funding of P16 million has been poured on the program and has been institutionalized to get reinforcement. DOH reported during the quarterly Regional Rabies Control Committee meeting last year that as of November 28, 2006 , Bohol ranked first in Central Visayas in terms of cases of human rabies, human deaths linked to rabies, and canine positive rabies cases. (BEGT Zabala/PGMA)