Toddler dies in dog attack where beast infected with rabies amid outbreak fears

28 July 2023 , 12:56

469     0

Two dogs allegedly with rabies (Image: Newsflash)

A toddler has tragically died in hospital after being bitten by a rabies-infected dog, sparking fear in her community that the dangerous infection could spread.

The unnamed two-year-old girl was at her uncle’s house in Madhya Pradesh, India, when she was bitten by a stray hound. Neighbours claimed that her family took the little girl to a natural healer immediately after the attack, but they did not administer any medicine. She was taken to the district hospital on July 21 but died three days later.

"When they returned to the village, the child started showing symptoms of rabies, which was ignored by her family," one local claimed to local media. The head of the community health centre Dinesh Bardariya reassured villagers that there is no need to panic as there are enough vaccines available.

Although not confirmed, local media reported that the girl could have bit and scratched about 40 people within a period of two weeks before she collapsed. But rabies is not contagious from person to person and the virus spreads through bites from an infected animal or from the animal's saliva.

The NHS says rabies is a "rare but serious infection" and is "almost always fatal once symptoms appear, but vaccination and early treatment can prevent it." Dogs are the most common animal that infects humans but other animals such as monkeys and cats may also spread the disease.

Baby boy has spent his life in hospital as doctors are 'scared' to discharge him

Without treatment, rabies symptoms may appear around 3-10 weeks after exposure. Signs to look out for are headaches, a high temperature, feeling weak or generally unwell and pain, numbness or tingling at the site of the bite. Symptoms usually progress a few days later and become more severe with muscle spasms and hallucinations.

In January, an eight-year-old girl was bitten by a bat in Mexico and died of rabies 10 days after her brother was also attacked. Regional officials have linked their family’s failure to seek medical attention earlier to their poverty and ignorance of how to resolve the situation. The deaths have also led to criticism of the precarious health system operating in some isolated parts of Mexico. Authorities in Oaxaca have travelled to the children's remote indigenous village to vaccinate dogs and cats against rabies.

Rabies is estimated to cause 59,000 human deaths annually in over 150 countries, with 95 per cent of cases occurring in Africa and Asia. Due to underreporting and uncertain estimates, the World Health Organisation says this number is likely a "gross underestimate." They continue: "The burden of disease is disproportionally borne by rural poor populations, with approximately half of the cases attributable to children under 15 years of age."

Rachel Hagan