KARACHI: A young man bitten by a dog in Kashmore district six weeks back reported with full-blown rabies, doctors at the Indus Hospital (IH) said on Tuesday.

This is the fifth reported case of rabies in the city and the second at the IH.

“We have put him on sedatives as he is experiencing painful signs of rabies, including hydrophobia, agitation, mental confusion and difficulty in swallowing,” said Aftab Gohar, manager of the Rabies Prevention Centre at the hospital.

Sharing how he developed rabies, he said information gathered from his relatives showed that the dog severely bit his right hand’s thumb last month.

“They told us that he was administered with some kind of injection at a hospital and was asked to return for further treatment. But he didn’t go there for a follow-up,” he said.

According to Mr Gohar, the IH had earlier received an eight-year-old boy with rabies in January. The boy lived in a village off the Superhighway.

Speaking to Dawn, Wali Mohammad, an uncle of the patient, said his nephew, married with two children, was the sole breadwinner of a seven-member family.

“He is a labourer like me. I am worried how his family would make ends meet without him as doctors have told us that they have little hope of his survival,” he said, adding that he paid Rs6,000 to the ambulance driver who brought the family from Sukkur to the hospital in Karachi.

Asked if the number of dog-bite cases had decreased due to the lockdown measures, Mr Gohar replied in the negative.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2020