China has increased the production of rabies vaccines to cope
with the rising number of rabies cases, according to the State Food
and Drug Administration (SFDA).
Statistics from the administration showed that from Aug. 1 to
Sept. 4, a total of 2.595 million doses of rabies vaccines were
approved to be put on market, almost 1 million over the monthly
average in the first half of this year.
"The increased supply of vaccines has relieved growing demand of
rabies vaccines," said the SFDA's spokeswoman Yan Jiangying.
Statistics from the Ministry of Health showed that in 2006,
rabies was ranked the second killer among the infectious diseases.
It has stayed at the top of the list of fatal infectious diseases
in China from Jan. to Aug. this year.
In China, production of one dose of vaccine against rabies will
take three to six months. Moreover, vaccine production is based on
plans made in accordance with predicted demand at the beginning of
each year.
The disease prevention and control center in Beijing reported a
rapid increase of rabies cases, as patients scratched or bitten by
cats and dogs exceeded 100,000 person times from Jan. 1 to Aug. 6,
up 33.7 percent year-on-year.
As a result, rabies vaccine is insufficient as the rabies
patients had a sharp increase so far this year.
Yan also called for enhanced management over the raising of
dogs, saying it is the ultimate solution.
(Xinhua News Agency September 17, 2007)