KGMOA urges Kerala govt to launch universal rabies vaccination programme for children

Thiruvananthapuram | The Kerala Government Medical Officers' Association (KGMOA) on Tuesday urged the state government to launch a universal pre-exposure rabies vaccination programme, especially for children and other high-risk groups.

This comes as rabies-related deaths in the state continue to pose a serious public health concern.

Noting that Kerala has made strong progress in recent years through mass dog vaccination, public awareness campaigns, and easy access to post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), the association stated that it is time to move from reacting to rabies cases to preventing them entirely.

In a statement issued a day after seven-year-old Niya Faisal succumbed to a rabies infection despite receiving vaccination, it highlighted that rabies is almost always fatal once symptoms appear.

Globally, around 59,000 people die from the disease every year, with India accounting for 18,000 to 20,000 of those deaths. Children make up nearly 40 per cent of the victims, and in Kerala, about 20–25 people still die from rabies each year, the association said.

The association noted that the World Health Organisation recommends a simple three-dose intradermal vaccination (on days 0, 7, and 21/28) for pre-exposure protection.

"This vaccine provides long-term immunity. If someone who has had these vaccines is later bitten, they only need two booster doses, and not the costly and hard-to-find rabies immunoglobulin," the association explained.

The KGMOA emphasised that this approach is safer, especially in cases involving serious bites to the face or hands.

It also helps in cases where PEP might not fully work—there have been 122 known rabies deaths worldwide since 1980 despite full PEP treatment.

Such rare failures can damage public trust in the health system.

To protect children, who often do not report bites and may not clean wounds properly, the association calls on the government to start the programme with them.

If a full state-wide rollout is not immediately possible, the plan should begin in high-risk areas and gradually expand, the association suggested.

The KGMOA recommends forming a task force to plan a phased rollout, starting with vaccinating all children, especially in high-risk or underserved areas, and gradually including high-risk workers such as doctors, vets, animal handlers, and sanitation staff.

They also urged integrating the pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) rabies vaccination programme with current rabies control efforts and seeking national-level support to include PrEP in India's Immunisation Programme for rabies-endemic regions.

Kerala has long been a leader in public health. The association believes that starting this preventive rabies vaccination programme will help the state set another example, leading the way towards the global goal of zero rabies deaths by 2030.

The KGMOA made these suggestions a day after Niya Faisal, a native of Kollam district, passed away at a state-run hospital in the early hours of Monday.

Niya's tragic demise came just days after a six-year-old girl in Malappuram district, Ziya Faris, died of rabies despite having received vaccination.

A 13-year-old girl from Pullad in Pathanamthitta also recently succumbed to the infection, despite receiving the prescribed vaccine doses.