A two-year-old girl in India has died of rabies but not before biting 40 people after she was infected by a rabid dog that had attacked her.
The little girl – identity not revealed – had reportedly stayed at her uncle’s home in the village of Kyolari, in the town of Konch, Uttar Pradesh State, India, when she was bitten by the canine several weeks ago.
Locals claimed that she was reportedly taken to a healer by her family immediately after the attack, but as the person was not a certified medic, they did not issue any medicine against the disease.
One local told Indian media: “When they returned to the village, the child started showing symptoms of rabies, which was ignored by her family.”
Media claimed that the girl bit and scratched about 40 people within a period of two weeks before she collapsed and was brought to the district hospital on Friday, 21st July.
However, medics said that once the symptoms appear the disease is almost always terminal, and she died on Monday, 24th July.
Head of the community health centre Dinesh Bardariya said: “Over 40 people from Kyolari village have come for rabies vaccine.
“However, there is no need to panic as we have enough rabies injections available.”
One of the symptoms often assigned to people with the disease is the desire to bite people, but medics say that this is mostly a myth, however, the disease does manifest itself as either a “furious” stage which is most common, or a less common paralytic stage.
The Cleveland Clinic wants that these last stages happen when death is near when the rabies virus starts damaging the brain and spinal cord.
On their website, they say: “About two-thirds of people have furious rabies, with symptoms like aggression, seizures and delirium.”
In this state they may attack or even bite people medics also say that the risk of infection from a bite by an infected human is minimal, unlike a bite from a bat that is the most common way people are infected, or a dog.
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Story By: Georgina Jadikovska, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency: Newsflash
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