Woman from Nawabshah dies of rabies at JPMC

Rabies encephalitis, a dog-borne lethal viral illness, and dengue fever claimed one life each in Karachi on Friday as both mosquitoes and stray dogs continue to breed and haunt people of the city.

A 55-year-old woman died of rabies at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC). She was a resident of Nawabshah and was shifted to Karachi for treatment.

"Hoor Bibi, 55, a resident of Nawabshah, was brought to JPMC on October 16 with full blown rabies. She expired today as nothing could be done to save her life,” said Dr Seemin Jamali, the JPMC executive director, as she spoke to The News.

Rabies encephalitis is a vaccine preventable disease but once it is fully developed, it cannot be treated. Dr Jamali said the woman was bitten by a rabid dog in her neck some five to six weeks back but she was not vaccinated. She added that a patient must be vaccinated against rabies once he or she is bitten by a stray dog and urged the authorities to take steps to eliminate stray dogs from the entire province to prevent deaths due to rabies.

Dengue death

Meanwhile, a 20-year-old woman, who was a resident of North Nazimabad, died at a private hospital on Friday due to complications of dengue, a mosquito-borne illness, said health officials on Friday.

"A 20-year-old female resident of the North Nazimabad area of the city was under treatment at a private hospital for dengue fever for a few days who expired early Friday morning due to dengue shock syndrome,” an official of the Sindh health department said.

The official added that around 235 new cases of dengue fever were recorded in Karachi during the last 24 hours, after which the total count of dengue cases in the city had reached 5,766. With the latest death due to dengue fever, the death toll of the disease has risen to 19 this year.