Number of dog bites, rabies deaths on the rise in State

Rising dog bites and human rabies deaths in Karnataka prompt intensified surveillance and vaccination campaigns for prevention.

Dog bites and human rabies deaths are on the rise in the State. While 3,61,522 cases and 42 deaths were reported in 2024, as many as 66,489 cases and eight deaths have already been reported from January till February 23 this year.

As many as 2,32,754 bites and four deaths were reported in the whole of 2023. The rise has been the highest this year post-pandemic. In 2022, as many as 1,63,366 dog bite cases and three deaths were reported. 

According to data from the State Health department’s Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), while Vijayapura recorded the highest number of cases at 4,552, Bengaluru has had the highest number of deaths (four) this year so far. Last year, while the highest number of dog bites were reported from BBMP limits at 28,403, Bengaluru Urban reported the highest number of rabies deaths at 16.

Officials said an average of 22,000 cases are being reported in the State every month of which a majority are from Bengaluru Urban and BBMP areas followed by Vijayapura, Mysuru, Mandya and Shivamogga. This year, the least number of cases have been reported from Yadgir (258), Chamarajnagar (500), Kodagu (624) and Haveri (1,002).

State IDSP Project Director Ansar Ahmed told The Hindu that eight deaths reported this year include the death of one person from Haryana, who came to the Epidemic Diseases Hospital in Bengaluru after he developed rabies in his hometown. “The disease had progressed by the time he had come to the city,” Dr. Ahmed said.

In 2022, Karnataka declared human rabies — a fatal viral disease that spreads through the bite of rabid animals (mainly dogs) — as a notifiable disease under the Karnataka Epidemic Diseases Act, 2020.

Following this, it is mandatory for all government and private health facilities (including medical colleges) to report all suspected, probable, and confirmed human rabies cases to the State Health department.