The detection of a suspected case of rabies has again focused on the socio-medical issue of increasing number of dog bite cases in the capital city. A five year old boy was brought to the Doon hospital here on Wednesday with symptoms of rabies.The skin specialist of hospital, Dr Anil Arya said the child was bitten by a stray dog sometime ago but the parents did not bother to take him to the doctor then, due to which he was not vaccinated.
He said when the boy developed some complication he was taken to a private nursing home from where he was referred to Mahant Indresh Hospital where the doctors suspected that the boy might be suffering from rabies. The parents then took the boy to Doon Hospital where the doctors reaffirmed the suspicion of rabies.Dr Arya said there was no specific test to confirm the presence of rabies virus in the body and the patient normally dies. He advised that prevention was the key to keep away the dreaded virus."The wound should be thoroughly washed with soap and anti rabies injection should be administered at as per the schedule", he said.
The Chief Pharmacist of hospital KC Kukreti said anti rabies injection was administered both intra dermal and intra muscular. The intra dermal one should be given on 0,3,7,28 days while intra muscular is scheduled on 0,3,7,14 and 28 days. Apart from injection doctors also advise for serum which is needed to be injected on the bite wound. The Doon Hospital provides free anti rabies vaccinations to the animal bite cases. It was learnt that 8382 vials of anti rabies vaccine were used last year in the hospital.Kukreti informed that 760 cases of animal bite cases were reported in the hospital in month of June this year out of which more than 90 percent are from dogs.