Health officials in the Yendi Municipality of the Northern Region are raising fears of infestations of rabies – an infection obtained from dog bite.

This is because according to them no dog in the area has been vaccinated against the disease for the past 10 years due to the non-availability of anti-rabies and snake venom.

An official at the Yendi Hospital, Francis Kweku Owusu says the situation is so dire that some farmers are now resorting to herbal medicine anytime they are bitten.

He was speaking to JOY NEWS at a free medical outreach programme organized in honor of the royal Regent of Dagbon.

"For the past ten years no dog in Yendi and its surrounding communities have been vaccinated against rabies, so if you get a dog bite now you are going to get rabies, as for the snake anti-venom it has been unavailable for some time now, so victims go as far as Tamale to get one and some too often die," he said.

MINISTRY OF HEALTH POLICY ON SERUM                                                                              

The Ministry of Health’s policy on snake and dog bite serum indicates that the serum be administered free of charge, but it has been in short supply in many health facilities in the Northern Region.

In 2013, three persons in the Kpandai district died out of reported cases of over 160 snake bites.  The Yendi hospital serves as the referral facility for many of the neighboring Districts such as Kpanda, Bimbilla, Saboba and zabzugu among others.

But Mr Owusu says the medications are always not enough to meet the growing demands by rural farmers who are referred to the facility.

DAGBON REGENT APPEALS TO GOVERNMENT TO GIVE PRIORITY TO THE YENDI HOSPITAL

Kampakuya-Na Abdulai Yakubu Andani in green hedgear

The royal regent of Dagbon Kampakuya-Na Abdulai Yakubu Andani said considering the overwhelming number of cases that the Yendi hospital receives there is the need for government to equip the facility in order that it is able to cater for the needs of the people in the region.

"The Yendi hospital as you see it serves about eight Districts, but if you go there you will not be happy there. So there is the need for government to equip it to serve the growing population who often visit there to seek medical attention" he said.

Over 1000 vulnerable residents mainly women and children were attended to by the medical outreach team and drugs were dispensed to them.

Cases that couldn’t be readily treated by the team were referred to the Yendi hospital for further investigation and treatment.