Greetings,

It is a known fact that rabies is a fatal disease thus the Department of Health has committed to fight against rabies and has set the goal of rabies elimination come 2020.

The Animal Bite Center of Western Visayas Medical Center caters to majority of patients in Iloilo city and most of its 42 municipality. It has continuously advocated against rabies and encourage rabies vaccination thru OPD lectures, development of IEC materials for animal bite patients and dog owners and continuously conducting orientation for Animal Bite medical staff ( FM residents/ ER &OPD nurses) on the latest management and treatment of animal bites.

Due to the increasing number of patients who sought consult for animal bites not only here in Western Visayas, its now recognize as one of the most common reason for consultation at the opd/er,thus the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation has proposed to incorporated animal bites as part of its coverage.

In connection with this, the Animal Bite Control Program aims to be accredited by Philhealth and would require the following for accreditation.

A. Qualified MDs and nurses who has undergone training on animal bite c/o DOH (with training certificate) B. Animal Bite Treatment Center should have the following: - emergency drugs - water supply - treatment center should provide PRIVACY for Animal Bite patients Presently the animal bite center is located at the opd besides the pedia opd. Ideally, as we have previously requested, the ABTC should be beside and connected to the Family Medicine Opd so as to promptly assess animal bite patients with adverse reactions to vaccines and better coordination with the abtc nurses as to the management of animal bite patients. C. ABTC updated rabies exposure registry ( attach sample ) The nurses at the ABTC not only caters for animal bite patients but for the whole OPD. They are also responsible for facilitating patients for admissions and minor OR at the OPD. Since the rabies exposure registry is one of the documents needed for accreditation ,we would like to request added manpower ( nurse/clerk) to help in the additional workload of our ABTC staff. Present staff: - 2 head nurses - 3 RN Heals ( 8 hours duty)

D. ABC staff should be able to accurately categorized and managed ABC patients Family Medicine consultants are scheduled to do OPD chart rounds every day so as to evaluate the residents competency as to their clinical assessment, patient management and completeness of the OPD charts E. Patients has continuous access to safe and effective modern tissue cell vaccines/ RIG throughout the duration of their management. Tissue Cell Vaccine/ RIG available at the hospital pharmacy: HRIG (Berirab) PVRV ( Verorab )

F. Post exposure prophylaxis is given by a trained MDs and nurses

G. Continuous medical education/ training on animal bite management by the ABTC staff

It has always been the aim of The Department of Family Medicine thru its different programs to make a difference in this institution and thus we continuously challenge ourselves to improve, be innovative and prevail against all odds. You have always been the backbone of our departmental achievements, thus we hope for a positive response to this initiative.