Father of six succumbs to rabies in Karachi

KARACHI: Another dog-bite victim lost his battle against rabies at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), taking the death toll from this deadly disease to 20 in the Sindh province since the start of the year.

A 45-year-old man, Saleem, son of Allah Ditta, resident of Surjani Town, was brought in the Emergency Department of the JPMC with rabies four days prior. He died in the early hours of November 5 at the hospital.

Executive Director, JPMC, Dr Seemin Jamali, confirmed the death of Muhammad Saleem due to rabies viral illness. He was admitted to the Isolation Ward of the JPMC with a history of dog-bite. He was bitten by a dog about six weeks back.

Saleem was the father of six children and a tailor by profession. He was bitten by a stray dog near his house when he tried to save his four-year-old daughter from a dog’s attack.

He was shifted to the Sindh Government Hospital in New Karachi for anti-rabies vaccination after the incident where the vaccine was not available. Later he was brought to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH).

The family members procured the vaccine from a private store on the directives of the ASH emergency staff. The doctors administered the vaccine to him; however, the vaccine did not prove effective.

Experts say that rabies is 100% fatal if the person not properly vaccinated. It has no cure if a person gets a full-blown viral infection. Rabies is a viral illness that is transmitted to humans if a rabid animal, mostly dogs, bite them.

In Sindh, a total of 20 people have died due to the deadly rabies viral illness so far out which ten deaths were reported at the JPMC alone.

Up to 155,000 dog-bite cases have been recorded in Sindh from January to date, out of which more than 23,000 were reported in the megacity alone.