Civic body lauded for vaccination prog

Bhubaneswar: Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday was felicitated by the Union ministry of health and family welfare for adopting best practices in its mass dog vaccination (MDV) programme under the rabies free city initiative.

The recognition was announced during a regional workshop on the state action plan for dog mediated rabies elimination (SAPRE), held in New Delhi. The workshop was organised to support states in drafting and preparing action plans for SAPRE implementation in the coming days.

Participants included representatives from the ministry of health, the department of animal husbandry, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta and experts from medical, veterinary and public health sectors. Officials from urban local bodies and municipal corporations across multiple states also attended.

“We have been carrying out mass vaccination since March 30. We are catching dogs along with expert vets and doing in-situ vaccination, which was dubbed as one of the best practices. We gave a presentation on our vaccination practice,” Prasanta Sika, BMC nodal officer for MDV, said.