Atskuri Population Urges the Government for Help

General occupation for the population of the village of Atskuri in the Akhaltsikhe district is breeding cattle. At present the villagers are panicked-several occasions of the rabies were observed in cattle. Local people cannot make rabies injection because they cannot afford it.

Nobody can say the exact number of cattle which died of rabies. Different people say different number. However, the problem is evident-cattle died because of the disease.

“Fifteen cows have already died of rabies. If the situation lasts too long, we will lose the whole cattle and I do not know how we will keep our families then,” Nona Martinenko is worried about the situation.

“Two or three facts of rabies have already occurred. We cut off heads of the cows and sent them to Tbilisi for expertise. As soon as we received results, we burnt down the dead cows and buried them in special holes,” said Gela Mumladze, head of the Atskuri Territorial Entity.

A cow died in the family of Amiran Gelashvili too. However he did not want to make comments on the fact.

“The cow of Gelashvilis died three days ago. The meat was buried; we cut off the head and asked the owner to send it to Tbilisi for expertise in the sake of his own family. But Gelashvili said that he cannot pay money for expertise. If we bury the ill meat, the family will run a serious risk,” said Andrei Gvirjishvili, member of the mobile group for Akhaltsikhe Epidemiology Monitoring Station.

Akhaltsikhe Municipality and the Veterinary Service Department give free injections to cattle in the village of Atskuri. The villagers have daily contact with their cows. Because of lack of money the local people face serious risk.

“Very often the population resists us. If a cow dies, the family should pay for its expertise, but the poor people cannot afford it. If it is proved that it was rabies, everybody must be injected who had connection with the cow. People should pay for the injections too,” said Mumladze.

Under the April 2 decree of the Minister of Labor, Healthcare and Social Welfare, anti-rabies service must be paid. Only children under fifteen and impoverished people do not have to pay for injections.

Only 37 people from the village of Atskuri were injected at the Akhaltsikhe District Hospital Ltd in April-May. Doctors say that most of the population has policies and they do not have to pay for vaccination. However, several villagers, who could not pay for the vaccine, were not injected. Official fee on rabies vaccine is 41,60 lari at the Akhaltsikhe Hospital.

“We paid the fee for the first injection, but we did not pay for the second and third one. As for the fourth injection, they demanded to pay 30 lari for each family member because the price of the vaccine was 15$. We did not have money and they did not give us injections,” said Grisha Martinenko.

Impoverished villagers are really concerned regarding the situation, because they have to visit hospital six times to finish the treatment.

The population urges the government for help. 

Gulo Kokhodze, Akhaltsikhe