Focus on increasing rat menace

Health officials in Kyrgyzstan have expressed concern over the growing population of rats, which could expose local communities to health risks. "My son went to bring some water from the tap and was bitten on his finger," Nargiza, a staff member of one of the city's service departments, told IRIN in the capital, Bishkek, adding that as they were keeping small domestic livestock in the garden, rats were feeding there. But when Nargiza went to get her son vaccinated against rabies, the doctor told her that the vaccine was unavailable in Bishkek, nor was it obtainable anywhere else in the country. Moreover, he did not know whether it would become available in the future either. According to official statistics, more than 160 people were bitten by rats in Bishkek in the first 10 months of 2003, while that figure in 2002 was 158. One hundred and twenty-six people applied for anti-rabies protection in 2000 and 100 in 1999. THE PROBLEM WORST IN THE SOUTH The situation is particularly problematic in the south of the country. Rakhim, a 35-year-old resident of the southern city of Osh, and his eight-year-old son were both attacked by rodents. "It happened at night. We both woke up because of the pain and we couldn't understand whether it was in our sleep or real as we were still half asleep," Rakhim told IRIN in Osh, adding that they soon found bite-marks on their hands, with the rodents dashing about on the trestle-bed. The Osh city disinfection station said more than 100 such cases had been registered over the last 10 months in that city, demonstrating the magnitude of the problem in the south. "It is 10 times more than in the last year," Ainura Osmonalieva, the station's chief physician, told IRIN in Osh, adding that the real number of incidents was in excess of those recorded in official statistics. She said she was more concerned that many local people who suffered from rat bites were not seeking medical treatment, simply hoping for the best. Some health experts said that their number could be several thousand. The situation country-wide is bound to deteriorate further with the coming cold weather as the rodents move from irrigation ditches and dust holes closer to people. According to some reported cases, rats were seen not only on the ground floors but also on the upper storeys of buildings. Commenting on the health risks, Osmonalieva said that they could be very dangerous. "Rodents are the potential vectors of dangerous diseases like plague, rabies and pseudo-tuberculosis," she warned. The country's sanitary and epidemiological agency said there were hardly any settlements in Kyrgyzstan which were free of attacks by rodents. Having completed mapping of rodent habitats earlier this year, the organisation identifies the worst-affected regions areas as Osh and Jalal-Abad provinces in the south and Chuy province in the north, where Bishkek is located. "The main threat comes from grey and black rats, which live close to human beings compared to the Turkestan rat that lives mostly in open areas far from human settlements," Samat Bekmurzaev, a local epidemiologist living in Osh, told IRIN. According to some specialists, grey rats were brought to Kyrgyzstan by trains carrying food stuff 20 years ago, while the black ones appeared later. Emil Shukurov, a biologist and consultant for the Central Asian Trans-boundary Biodiversity Project, commenting on the rat "invasion" in the north, told IRIN in Bishkek that in the late 1980s in one of the laboratories in the northern part of Bishkek several dozens of white laboratory rats escaped. "They mixed with their grey relatives, giving birth to abundant offspring," he asserted. CONTROL MEASURES COLLAPSE AFTER INDEPENDENCE Whereas during the Soviet era efforts to exterminate the rats were fairly comprehensive, they fell by the wayside with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the country's subsequent independence in 1991.

Garbage dumps like these provide fertile breeding grounds for rodents

"Before, there used to be obligatory weekly disinfection activities at the city dumps and regular treatment of storage facilities, cellars and markets," Osmonalieva recalled, noting that now there were no resources for that as neither the republican nor the local budget was providing any money, while organisations and businesses were reluctant to make disinfection contracts with the station. "They also don't conclude any contracts for taking out garbage. Hills of household rubbish, cellars of apartments, and cemeteries have become the favourite places of the rodents," IRIN was told by the utility department. DAMAGE TO STORED STAPLES Yet another aspect is the rats' impact on the storage of agricultural produce. "Nobody risks to keep the harvest of wheat or rice for winter. Although I covered all the holes in the floor, this vermin took away several sacks of corn last year," Shavkatbek Juraev, a farmer in the southern Aravan District, told IRIN, adding that the rodents were a real disaster and hunting them with bait had proved unsuccessful: the animal was smart enough to avoid the trap once hunted. Instead, in most cases poultry or cattle consumed the bait and consequently died. Local agricultural experts estimated that an adult rat could eat more than 30 kg of grain a year. "It is impossible to calculate the economic impact the country suffers if the 'uninvited guest' lives in every rural household," said Burkhan Mamadaliev, a local rural finance specialist. The rodents breed the whole year round and therefore their population can rapidly increase. "As a result, a couple of them can give birth to some 800 rats," Gulsara Samieva, a biology teacher in Osh, explained. LACK OF FUNDS PRECLUDES EFFECTIVE ACTION According to some epidemiologists, although some definite action is being take to deal with the problem in Bishkek for which the disinfection service is being paid, such measures are only intermittent outside the capital due to lack of funds. Meanwhile, only one rabies-specific centre exists in Bishkek, where specialists engage in prophylactic treatment, counsel victims of bites from animals, and monitor their patients. The centre now has a stock of anti-rabies vaccine, but how long it will last is difficult to say. "I have calculated, US $10,000 would be sufficient for the sanitary treatment of city dumps and cemeteries. I even worked out a project on that, but couldn't find any donors yet," Osmonalieva said, noting that her station, within the confines of its limited means, was conducting rodent-elimination operations at kindergartens, boarding schools and nursing houses for the disabled. However, preventive measures needed to be put in place in river basins, canals and water reservoirs banks. The only hope for really effective action lay in help being extended by the public, epidemiologists said. They said they had met community leaders, activists and block committee members to persuade them to become more actively involved in fighting the problem, but again, when the issue came to money, the matter could not be pursued due to a general lack of resources. Meanwhile, in an effort to tackle the issue, the authorities have issued a special decree on strengthening measures to fight the menace. Given the danger of the situation, the authorities charged state bodies, regional administrations and municipalities to apply maximum utilisation of financial, technical and other resources to resolve it. The health ministry was instructed to ensure implementation of disinfection and vector control activities. However, the results of those efforts have yet to be seen. And with colder weather coming, as the rodents move closer to human beings, experts warn of an increase in bites, particularly among children.