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As of 2008, starting in the Central Province, veterinarian teams have
been sterilizing dogs in a couple of provinces, for which the government
pays the veterinarians.
The decision by the government to sterilize dogs to control dog
populations to replace the previous method of killing dogs to control
dog populations in order to curb rabies is a direct result of the
laudable and unprecedented promulgation by President Mahinda Rajapaksa
of non-killing of dogs since June 2006, for which I and millions of Sri
Lankans would always be grateful to him, just as much as we are forever
grateful to him for having rid this country of terrorism.
I have not had any response to many letters I have written to the
authorities regarding a proposal I have made to make the current
government-funded dog sterilization program a sustainable, effective and
accessible program to all dog owners in the country, avoiding fresh
animal welfare concerns that arise owing to ad-hoc sterilization of
dogs, with no accessible post-operative services.
Do we want to solve this problem of rabies or do we want to keep it
going as yet another proverbial beggar's wound, incurring huge amounts
of further money to pay for rabies vaccines, for both dogs and people?
It is laudable that human deaths owing to rabies have been brought down
in Sri Lanka (at a huge cost of providing vaccines to both dogs and
humans), but I believe like most others that no one should die of
rabies, which is a highly preventable disease.
Ever since animal welfarists, especially and most prominently
Sagarica Rajakarunanayake of Sathwa Mithra, continued to argue for
non-killing of dogs as a method of rabies control, promoting the only
humane method of dog control, surgical removal of the reproductive tract
(i.e., sterilization), I wished to find a model to conduct dog
sterilization across the country in a cost-effective and systematic,
and, most importantly, in a sustainable manner.
In 2006/2007, I did a sterilization program in the Udunuwara MOH area
as a pilot study, covering several villages, and found that in each
village the number of female-owned dogs is only about 10-25 percent. I
also noted that there were no community dogs in the typical villages,
but that there were about 10-25 percent of community dogs (mostly
females and a few mange-ridden, disabled old males) in semi-urban
villages, which obviously are the litters produced by the owned female
dogs. So the clear need was to sterilize these 25 percent owned female
dogs in villages across the country.
In the report I made on the pilot project I suggested that this small
number of recurrently puppy-producing female dog population be
sterilized in the first round and proposed that veterinarian teams be
recruited to each MOH office across the country to conduct this work. I
presented the data I had gathered to the Health Development Council (HDC)
meeting of Health Ministry on March 29, 2007 and proposed the
recruitment of veterinarian teams to each MOH office. At this meeting it
was acknowledged by the Director General of Health Services that the
health sector needs veterinary surgeons not only to combat rabies but to
provide support dealing with other zoonotic diseases spreading in the
country.
Prior to that, I made the same presentation to the PDHS (Provincial
Director of Health Services)/Central Province, Dr. Shanthi Samarasinghe,
to begin sterilizing dogs in the Central Province using my MOH model.
With all due credit to Dr. Samarasinghe, she initiated a province-wide
sterilization program in February 2008, the first ever province to
conduct dog sterilizations using government funds. Unfortunately, the
program deviated from the original proposal of only sterilizing the
owned female dogs in the first round.
The ad-hoc government-funded sterilization program conducted in the
Central Province and now underway in Sabaragamuwa and several other
provinces will not, in my opinion, touch even the tip of the iceberg, as
the culprit female-owned dogs are not being targeted in each village
systematically. I understand that mostly male dogs are being sterilized.
My biggest fear and concern are that the authorities will eventually
pronounce that sterilization as a method of dog-population control is
not successful and propose that they may have to go back to killing of
dogs. I must stress that if the present program does not provide
sustainable results (and my firm belief is that it will not, if we
continue in this manner), the fault is NOT with the policy of
sterilizing dogs but the current method of application, which does not
target the relatively very small number of culprit dogs, systematically,
or have follow-up programs.
The Health Minister has recently said that there is a shortage of
veterinarians. I pointed out in several letters to the authorities that
the government trains veterinarians at a huge cost and when they pass
out from the university, they have no jobs waiting for them, unlike the
Medical graduates.
If these veterinarians are recruited to MOH offices as teams (of four
perhaps?) to conduct the dog sterilization program, they would
definitely be able to sterilize the puppy-producing owned female dogs in
each village of their MOH area systematically and conduct follow-up
programs. The huge monies (billions) that are now allocated for the
government sterilization program can be used for the salaries of these
veterinarians and then the cost for the government would only be the
drug cost (like in the medical service). The biggest bonus would be that
the program would then provide sustainable results cost effectively. The
service will be reachable to all dog owners too, unlike now. There will
be responsible veterinary surgeons to attend to post-operative care of
the dogs, also unlike now in some instances and follow-up sterilization
programs can be done.
If the billions allocated for the sterilization program is to provide
sustainable results, the government-funded dog sterilization program
should be converted to a day-to-day service accessible to the people as
proposed above and not continued as a mere numbers game for some
veterinarians. The ideal institution to provide this service is the MOH
office, which is the only State institution that reaches each and every
household.
Health Minister please urgently consider recruiting salaried
veterinarian teams to MOH offices to conduct the government-funded
sterilization program.
CHAMPA FERNANDO
We are pleased to hear the donation of two Immuns Chemistry analyzers
to the Colombo National Hospital by Siemens Health Care and Services
Biogenic Organization at a cost of Rs. 225 million.
This new technology will diagnose diseases quickly. This will help
poor patients who cannot pay high prices to private laboratories.
The Pathology Department of the National Hospital is very spacious
with all resources with Automated Equipments, Highly qualified
pathologist, Haematologist, Bacteriologist, Bio-chemists, several well
trained medical officers, specialized medical lab, technologists.
I have seen this staff is highly dedicated and discharged their
duties with confidence.
But the ward clinical staff under value their services and send many
laboratory investigations to private laboratories which is a burden to
poor patients.
When I was in the Hospital Committee I questioned the Director. His
reply was that the Hospital Lab Reports are getting delayed and sometime
unreliable. Then I requested to take action to correct this sad state of
affairs. But it prevails up to date.
According to my knowledge lab reports are not delayed. They issue
accurate reports without any delay. Sometime they send specimens to both
places private and hospital laboratory.
Poor patients find it difficult to pay to their investigations.
Government is spending vast amounts of money to the Pathology
Department. The poor patients should get the benefits. I do hope the
Health Minister will see to this problem.
A.D.T. Maithripala
Thalawatugoda
I am a retired mercantile executive. I maintain a number of Current
Accounts in commercial banks. Prior to computerization I used to get my
Bank statement on the 1st or the 2nd of the month on transactions
carried out in the previous month. After computerization I used to
receive my statements by 7th or 8th of the month. Recently I used to get
my statements only on the 15th of the month and sometimes not get is at
all.
On enquiring I was informed that the Banks outsource the dispatch of
statements to private parties. This is an infringement of the secrecy
which banks are supposed to maintain. As the statements are not received
in time the customers are much inconvenienced and also will lead to
frauds as they are unable to report unauthorized debits. I hope the
Central Bank will look into this matter and take remedial measures.
K.Baduge Maharagama
I am saddened by the poor reading habit of top bureaucrats which has
in my view immensely contributed towards the inefficiency of the public
service.
It is worrying that there are officers even at the level of
Secretaries, Additional Secretaries, Heads of Department, Director
Generals and Consultants who read one or two vernacular newspapers or do
not read any newspapers at all, let alone the reading of magazines,
journals and books. Their poor reading habit has rendered them to a frog
in the well.
As they are poor readers they are bankrupt for ideas and their
critical faculty is low and they lack creative, innovative thinking.
Unfortunately in our country to become a politician we do not need any
education. From some of these politicians we cannot expect anything. It
is the responsibility of these officers to guide them but as these
officers are poor readers they too are in the same predicament as their
Ministers.
Bilingual readers among the top officials are a small number and the
trilingual readers are even smaller. Sinhalese officers read only
Sinhala newspapers; Tamils and Muslim officers read only Tamil
newspapers - mostly the one which most appeals to narrow minded
nationalism and racism.
These officers should be encouraged to become at least bilingual
readers. In my view reading of English newspapers has an added advantage
to these officers. English newspapers are read and contributed to by the
cream of intelligentsia from all three communities - Sinhalese, Tamil
and Muslims and also the international community. They bring hot news in
its original form and serve as a learned critic as well.
Some English newspapers carry thought provoking editorials, features
by eminent scholars and letters to the editor on current issues and I
wonder how many of our top Government officials read and benefit from
them.
M.A. Kaleel
Kalmunai
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