KARACHl: A 12-year-old boy from Balochistan, who had been battling rabies for the past four days at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), died at the facility on Wednesday evening.
Sources said that the patient with a history of dog bite developed rabies despite getting the vaccine in Jhal Magsi district. He was later taken to a Larkana hospital from where he was referred to the JPMC.
‘He reported to us four days back with high fever, hydrophobia and irritability classic, hallmark clinical symptoms of encephalitic rabies,’ a senior JPMC doctor shared, adding that he had injuries on the orbital region, the area surrounding the eye.
‘The kind of injuries he had required immediate administration of rabies immunoglobulin (RIG), a life-saving medication that’s used alongside the [rabies] vaccine to prevent infection following potential exposure, such as a bite or scratch from a [rabid] animal,’ he explained.
The doctor added that the boy developed rabies because he could not get the critical RIG shot and adequate doses of rabies vaccine.
Recently, a six-year-old boy from Badin died of rabies at Liaquat University Hospital (LUH) despite having been given RIG and rabies vaccine, bringing the number of rabies deaths in Sindh to 43 so far.
The boy had been given a single dose of RIG and, reportedly, three doses of the vaccine at a hospital in Golarchi.
The case raised questions about the vaccine quality and the training of staff managing post-exposure treatment.
A large number of rabies cases, experts say, go unreported as patients use home remedies or turn to faith healers for ‘treatment’.
They emphasised the need for public awareness, humane control of the dog population and the availability of appropriate treatment in hospitals.
While dog bites account for the majority of rabies cases, bites from potentially rabid wild animals can also transmit the virus.
After exposure, early wound cleansing, timely rabies vaccination and the administration of rabies immunoglobulin, if needed, can effectively prevent the disease, which is almost invariably fatal once clinical symptoms appear.