City To Offer Low-cost Rabies Shots

Warning that "rabies is at our doorstep," the Philadelphia Department of Public Health announced yesterday that it would launch a low-cost rabies vaccination program for dogs and cats.

"It's only a matter of time before it pops up here," said Dr. Robert Sharrar, director of the city's Office of Health Promotion and Disease Control. "I suspect we could have a case by the first of the year."

Health officials are worried that the dramatic rise in animal rabies cases in the suburbs in recent months could signal trouble for the city's animal population. So far this year, 150 cases of animal rabies have been reported in Chester County, 14 in Delaware County and three cases each in Bucks and Montgomery Counties, according to the state Department of Health. Most of the cases involved raccoons.

Statewide, there have been 444 cases of rabies this year, up from 268 for the same period last year, according to Bruce Reimer, a spokesman for the state Health Department. He said Pennsylvania was outranked only by Texas in the number of rabies cases.

"If your pet isn't immunized, you're putting your pet and your family at an unnecessary risk of having rabies," Sharrar said yesterday.

Rabies vaccines will be offered for $5 at designated veterinary clinics on Nov. 19 and at a number of city facilities on Dec. 3. Sharrar said a list of places where pet owners could take their animals to be vaccinated would be announced soon.

A recently completed study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine found that 33 percent - or 47,000 - of the 143,000 household dogs in the city and 42 percent - or 71,000 - of the city's 171,000 household cats had not been vaccinated for rabies in the last three years.

A rabies vaccine is good for one to three years, depending on the type used.

Alan Beck, one of the Penn researchers who did the study, said the rabies epidemic in this area involved primarily raccoons, which can spread the disease to cats, dogs and other animals through biting.

"There is no evidence at all that rats and mice are involved," he said. ''If you leave raccoons alone and keep your dogs and cats vaccinated, you can enjoy wildlife in the city."

Both state and city regulations require pet owners to have their cats and dogs vaccinated against rabies, but Sharrar said the city's regulation was ''impossible to enforce."