A 6-year old boy suffering from full-blown rabies after being bitten by a stray dog at Gawa village area over a month ago died on Thursday, amid shortage of anti-rabies vaccine (ARV), a growing population of stray dogs and inadequate facilities.
Officials said that 6-year-old Rudra Kumar, son of Sandip Ram, was at an area shop some six weeks ago, when he was attacked by a stray dog. He tried his best to keep himself safe but in the process the dog bit his thumb and leg.
After which the family took him to Samudayik Health Center, Gawa, 25 km from Giridih town, where doctors asked him to take five vials of anti rabies but only three vials were given him. “After a month of the incident, his condition started deteriorating and we finally again shifted him to the Samudayik Health Centre, Gawa,” said his father Sandip Ram. But by that time he had developed full-blown rabies and was referred to another hospital but the victim died last yesterday at a hospital in Nawada district in Bihar.
Dr Sidharth Sanyal, who is in Charge of the Civil Surgeon, Giridih said that child may have died due to some other reasons. As the child has been injected with three vials of rabies and four needles were to be applied after 90 days and he died before that. Somewhere he must have hydrophobia, said he.