Young man from Umerkot dies of rabies at JPMC

A Peoples Primary Healthcare Initiative technician who had been bitten by a rabid dog some 25 days ago died of rabies encephalitis at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) late Monday night.

JPMC Executive Director Dr Seemin Jamali said on Tuesday that 24-year-old Talib Hussain from Umerkot had died due to full-blown rabies. She said he was brought in with hydrophobia and delirium, adding that though he had been vaccinated, his relatives did not know what exactly was administered to him.

She confirmed that this was the year’s seventh rabies death at the JPMC. She said that a rabid dog had bitten the man’s hand and arm. Dr Seemin said that some 6,000 dog bite cases had been treated at the JPMC this year until mid-August. “This number is far less compared to last year’s. It’s probably due to the lockdown keeping people indoors.”

Indus Hospital officials said that three people had died of rabies encephalitis at their health facility this year, adding that they had received some 4,000 dog bite cases from Karachi and other areas of Sindh as well as from Balochistan.

Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho said that anti-rabies vaccine is available at most hospitals in Sindh but people do not take dog bite cases seriously, which results in full-blown rabies and painful death in some cases.

“Even villagers know that anybody bitten by a dog must be vaccinated. But in some cases, if the wound isn’t very serious, people avoid getting the patient vaccinated. Some of these patients develop rabies encephalitis, which is 100 per cent fatal.”