A bat-bitten eight-year-old girl died of rabies 10 days after her brother was similarly bitten.
In the Mexican state of Oaxaca, two kids who were bitten by a rabid wild animal—possibly a bat—died within days of one another.
Brother and Sister Die From Rabies
The death of an 8-year-old Palo de Lima girl was verified by the state health authorities on Saturday. The state capital’s Doctor Aurelio Valdivieso General Hospital had been providing care for the patient.
The girl’s 7-year-old brother died on December 28 as a result of a rabies infection, and now she has also passed away.
The brain and spinal cord of mammals are seriously harmed by the severe viral illness rabies. Typically, an infected animal’s bite results in the virus being transferred to people.
One to three cases of human rabies are recorded year on average in the United States, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The majority of human rabies fatalities in the United States—roughly 70%—are caused by exposure to infected bats.
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Danger Of Wild Animal Bites
The death of an 8-year-old Palo de Lima girl was verified by the state health authorities on Saturday. The state capital’s Doctor Aurelio Valdivieso General Hospital had been providing care for the patient.
The majority of cases are found in Asia and Africa, but the illness still results in almost 60,000 deaths each year worldwide, mostly as a result of contact with rabid dogs.
The disease is usually invariably fatal to people once symptoms manifest, although rabies can be avoided if treatment is given right away after exposure.
According to the CDC, the time it takes for rabies symptoms to appear can range from three weeks to three months, depending on variables including the particular virus at issue and how close or far the exposure site was from the brain.
If taken before the onset of symptoms, post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) shots are virtually 100% effective at preventing the illness.
According to Dr. Concepción Roco Arias Cruz, the hospital’s director, the youngsters in the Oaxaca deaths are thought to have been bitten on December 1 but were not brought to a medical facility until about three weeks later.
It was too late to save the siblings at this moment. The brothers’ 2-year-old sister was also bitten in the same incident, but she underwent treatment and hasn’t shown any rabies symptoms.
The 8-year-old girl was in a “severe condition” when she was admitted to the hospital on December 21 with health issues following a “wild animal” bite, according to a statement from the Oaxaca health department.
The statement read, “A group of multidisciplinary specialists was following the patient at all times during her stay at the [Doctor Aurelio Valdivieso General Hospital], but she sustained permanent damage to her health resulting in the terrible death of the youngster.”
Health officials from Oaxaca traveled to the isolated community of Palo de Lima after the first child died to vaccinate dogs and cats against rabies.
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