Seven-year-old Kerala girl contracts rabies despite vaccination, admitted to hospital

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| Photo Credit: SINGARAVELOU T

A seven-year-old girl from Kollam, Kerala, has been admitted to SAT Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram with rabies despite receiving the rabies vaccine.

The girl is currently on ventilator support in the intensive care unit of the hospital. She is under sedation and being administered anti-viral medicines.

The girl was bitten by a dog on the inside of her elbow on April 8. She received the anti-rabies vaccination at a nearby family health centre and the immunoglobulin serum at the Punalur taluk hospital. However, when she developed fever, tests at the taluk hospital confirmed she had contracted rabies. She was then admitted to SAT Hospital.

Less than a week ago, a six-year-old girl in Kozhikode who was bitten by a stray dog had succumbed to rabies despite receiving the anti-rabies vaccine and serum.

There have been 12 rabies deaths in Kerala this year alone. Twenty-two rabies deaths were reported last year and 17 the year before.

SAT Hospital authorities confirmed that the girl from Kunnicode in Kollam had been given three doses of the intradermal rabies vaccine and was to have the fourth dose on May 6. Immunoglobin serum too was administered. The girl’s mother had told them that the wound had been washed well initially and then again at the family health centre.

They underlined that the vaccine was effective for it was used in hundreds of dog bite cases in the State every year.