MITHI: Eleven-year-old Imtiaz Samejo who was bitten by a rabid dog in Rata-Jo-Tarr village near Chhachhro town in the second week of September died in the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre in Karachi on Tuesday evening.

Mohammad Hussain Samejo, uncle of the victim, told journalists here on Wednesday that they had taken the boy to rural health centre in Chhachhro for vaccination after he was bitten by a rabid dog but doctors administered him an “expired” vaccine which deteriorated his condition and then they advised them to shift him to Karachi.

“The doctors at JPMC told us that the boy might have been injected with a vaccine which might not have been stored at required temperature. Hence, he developed full-blown rabies and died,” he said and demanded inquiry into his nephew’s death.

Tharparkar District Health Officer Dr Irshad Memon outright rejected claims of the victim’s relatives and said the boy was administered proper doses of vaccine.

“The first dosage was administered on 10/9/2019 soon after the boy was brought to the centre and the final and the fifth one was given on 8/10/2019,” he said.

He claimed that the vaccines which were given to the victim were stored in required temperature in the hospital.

Anti-locust spray kills three deer in Thar

Three deer of a rare species were found dead in a jungle near Chelhar town. They had most probably died after eating plants which had recently been sprayed with insecticides to prevent locusts eating away crops and trees in the area for the past few weeks, villagers said.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2019