Rabid Cat Alert: Health Dept. Launches Emergency Response in Ciudad del Carmen

The Health Department, working alongside the National Center for Disease Prevention and Control, has put in place a Rabies Focus Protocol in Ciudad del Carmen. This comes in response to a report of a three-month-old cat infected with rabies in the area.

Efforts are currently underway to identify any other dogs or cats showing symptoms of the disease, although no additional cases have been reported as of yet. This information comes from Josefa Castillo Avendaño, the head of the state health department.

Immediate actions taken include administering rabies vaccinations to anyone who had close contact with the infected cat. Additionally, anyone attacked by dogs or cats will receive inoculations.

A door-to-door rabies vaccination campaign for dogs and cats is also being conducted within a 1km radius of the location of the infected cat. This area will gradually be expanded to a 5km radius over the next month.

Avendaño assures that monitoring efforts will continue without interruption, with the welfare of the local population as the top priority. She encourages all residents to have their pets vaccinated, monitor them for any signs of illness, avoid risky interactions with wild animals, and cooperate with the personnel carrying out this operation.

Avendaño also noted that over 64,000 doses of the canine and feline rabies vaccine have been administered so far this year, along with 742 doses to humans at risk. She emphasized the severity of the rabies virus, which has a 100% mortality rate and is transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids.