Rabies deaths rise even as Karnataka govt prepares action plan

Bengaluru: Deaths due to rabies have increased significantly in Karnataka over the last three years, with the figure jumping from 18 in 2023 to 53 in 2025. 

Last year, a majority of these deaths were reported from Bengaluru Urban (18), followed by Belagavi (9), Bagalkot (5) and Vijayapura (4).

In December 2022, the state government had declared rabies as a notifiable disease. 

While senior health department officials attributed the rise in death toll to increased reporting, they also acknowledged that the significant rise had pushed the department to bring out the State Action Plan for Rabies Elimination (SAPRE).

The action plan will help bring together all the stakeholders to monitor the situation, they said.

“Major measures include vaccinating dogs with anti rabies vaccine (ARV) and ensuring availability of enough vaccine and rabies immunoglobulin injections at private and government health facilities. Now, both of them are not up to the mark and hence, the rabies deaths are increasing,” a senior official said.

Health officials opined that the action plan has been formulated after studying the limitations on the ground, and various departments have been brought under an obligation to ensure that they abide by their responsibilities under the SAPRE.

However, experts working with the animal husbandry department opined that for the plan to be successful, it was important to ensure funds to local bodies to vaccinate dogs effectively.

They noted that many of the urban local bodies and gram panchayats lacked funds to vaccinate dogs and this was a major hurdle.

“Vaccinating one dog costs close to Rs 265 and this has to be done annually. While the corporations in Bengaluru are doing it effectively, it is still a problem in other cities and villages owing to fund crunch,” an official with the animal husbandry department said.

Meanwhile, health officials said they would hold periodic review meetings to remind other departments of their obligations.

“The health department cannot fund such initiatives. It is the responsibility of the local bodies concerned, and with the SAPRE they are obligated to take up vaccination. We will monitor them regularly,” a health department official said.