Forty two people from 15 districts died of rabies last year according to the National Anti-Rabies Unit of the Health Ministry.
Highest number of deaths, 10, was reported from the Batticaloa district. Kurunegala 7, Puttalam and Galle 5 each, Anuradhapura 3, Kalutara, Kandy and Badulla 2 each, Kegalle, Nuwara-Eliya, Matara, Hambantotta, Monaragala and Mullaitivu reported one death each.
Siliguri, July 24: A 10-year-old boy, who was allegedly turned away from a government hospital short on anti-rabies vaccine, died of suspected hydrophobia this evening.
Hydrophobia or the fear of water (read difficulty to swallow liquids) is one of the symptoms of rabies, a near fatal disease caused by the bite of animals affected with the virus.
Mamoni Chakraborty said her son Ranjan and four other children of Bakali in Mainaguri block of the district were bitten by a mad dog a month ago.
No state-run hospitals in the Okara district have possessed with the anti-rabies vaccine for more than a year forcing the victims to purchase the costly vaccine from the market.
The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has alleged that an agreement between the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the Butantan Institute of Brazil on the import of cell culture rabies vaccine is a gross violation of World Health Organisation (WHO) rules because the Brazilian institute is not approved by the WHO. The PMA's Islamabad-Rawalpindi chapter, in a press release issued here on Saturday, said the vaccine to be imported was also not WHO certified.
The number of antelopes is dwindling day by day in the district, thanks to nature's fury and the laxity of authorities. Hundreds of antelopes including Chinkara, Chousinga, Spotted Deer and Sambar were living in the islands of Godavari River including Narayanalanka, Addankivarilanka, Veedhivarilanka, Kedarulanka, Sathemmalanka and Nandapallilanka.
The Supreme Court recently asked the Union government to consider banning the production of anti-rabies vaccine from sheep. The court highlighted allegations that patients administered such vaccines
An unprecedented outbreak of rabies in a northeastern province of the Amazon basin has left 15 people dead around Portel, a sparsely populated region of Brazil. Seven cases were diagnosed by
