The Public Health Department of the Health Ministry refuted allegations made by the All Ceylon Government Medical Officers’ Association (ACGMOA) on Sunday (01) that they were going to suspend the dog sterilization programme. Deputy Director General (Public Health), Dr. Palitha Mahipala said yesterday (02) the accusations were baseless and that they had no intention of stopping sterilization of dogs, as it was a part of the National Rabies Control Programme.

The Health Ministry was allotted hundred million rupees in last year’s budget for its dog sterilization programme. This year the Ministry will be given two hundred million for sterilization. The spokesman for the Health Ministry said yesterday (02) that the problem was with the production of the Depo-provera vaccine used for chemical sterilization. The manufacturer is unable to cater to the demand at present owing to a problem at that end, he said.

Statistics show that under the National Rabies Control Programme the Ministry was able to sterilize over 204,541 dogs (surgical and chemical) last year. From January to August this year there have been 82,150 surgical sterilizations and 635,317 chemical sterilizations. The Ministry has promoted sterilization as a humanitarian method of controlling rabies rather than mass destruction of strays. In 2007 ten people died of rabies in the Northern Province. But this year to date there has been only one rabies death.