A six-year-old Indonesian girl has died of rabies in Bintulu, Sarawak – the second person to have succumbed to the deadly virus this year.
Sarawak health department director Dr Veronica Lugah said the victim began displaying symptoms, including headache, fever, neck pain and loss of appetite on July 31, the Borneo Post reported.
The girl was then admitted to the Bintulu Hospital on Aug 3, where she developed hallucinations, hydrophobia, aerophobia and hypersalivation.
She died the next day.
“Investigations revealed she had been bitten by a stray dog on July 16 outside her home. The dog was later captured and tested positive for rabies by the Sarawak veterinary services department,” Veronica was quoted as saying.
In May, a 13-year-old boy from Kuching became the first person this year to get infected with rabies in Sarawak after he was scratched by a stray cat.
Veronica said the two human rabies cases reported this year was a drop from the five cases registered in the same period last year.
The cumulative number of human rabies cases in Sarawak now stands at 85 since the outbreak was declared in July 2017, with 78 fatalities, she said.
“We would like to remind the public that Sarawak is still not free from the rabies epidemic.”
She said rabies could be spread through bites or scratches, as well as exposure to the saliva of mammals infected with the virus, especially dogs and cats.
