BY EUGENE Y.ADIONG
BACOLOD City – Did rabies kill a man in San Carlos City?
A dog bit the man recently and he eventually died.
“We are still waiting for the test results,” said Dr. Ernell Tumimbang, provincial health officer.
He also did not name the man.
Provincial Health Office (PHO) records showed four deaths due to rabies from January to April this year.
Two of the fatalities were from Sagay City. The two others were from Cadiz and San Carlos cities.
“If the death in San Carlos is confirmed as caused by rabies, then the number of fatalities will rise to five,” Tumimbang said.
PHO records also showed that in the first quarter of the year, there were 4,648 animal bite cases in Negros Occidental.
Of these cases, 2,090 victims were 15 years old.
Records also showed that of the total cases, 2,558 victims were above 15 years old.
“The figures are not yet alarming,” Tumimbang said.
In 2013, PHO recorded no deaths due to rabies.
“Most of the victims lived in far-flung areas where there was poor access to anti-rabies vaccines,” Tumimbang said.
Rabies remains a public health concern throughout the country, according to the Department of Health.
Rabies attacks the nervous system. Its victims exhibit irrational furies, fearfulness and foaming at the mouth. The difficulty that patients have in swallowing water or food led to the disease’s other common name: hydrophobia.
Since the virus moves through the body inside nerve tissue rather than the blood, the disease triggers no antibodies and can’t be detected during its incubation. Once it reaches the brain, death is virtually inevitable./PN
