The number of dog bite cases in Karnataka are on the rise with a total of 2,22,167 dog bite cases and three deaths reported this year so far. As many as 2,32,552 cases and four deaths were reported in the State in 2023.
According to data from the State Health Department’s Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), as many as 7,154 cases were reported in the last one week itself. In the last one month alone, 26,436 dog bite cases have been reported. Officials said an average of 6,000 cases are being reported in the State every month of which a majority are in urban areas including Bengaluru.
Notifiable disease
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. Karnataka reported 22 human rabies deaths in 2020, 28 in 2021, 32 in 2022, four in 2023 and three this year so far.
