14-year-old boy hides dog bite from parents, dies of rabies in Ghaziabad

Ghaziabad: A 14-year-old boy died of rabies after being bitten by a pet dog over a month ago in Ghaziabad.

While the child died on Monday night, the family only came to know about his health condition when it started getting worse for the nearly past one week as the child didn’t tell his parents about the encounter with the dog.

Shahwez, a resident of Vijay Nagar in Ghaziabad, studied in class 8 at a private school. It had been nearly a week that the child was showing strange symptoms of being afraid

of water, showing abnormalities etc.

The family ran from pillar to post seeking treatment for the child, but they were turned away from a few big hospitals in New Delhi and Meerut.

When asked, the child told his family that he was bitten by a pet dog that belonged to a woman living in the

neighbourhood who owns four dogs and also feeds stray dogs in the locality.

“When we asked him, he told us that about one-and-a-half months ago, the dog had bitten him. Out of fear he did not tell us. By the time infection started spreading into his body and we only came to know when the child started showing symptoms,” said Matloob Ahmed, Shahwez’s grandfather.

He said that for the past three days they were running to hospitals in Delhi and Meerut, but doctors declared the disease incurable.

“Someone told us that there is a doctor in Bulandshahr who treats him with indigenous medicines. On Monday night at 8 p.m., we were returning to Ghaziabad by ambulance after getting medicine for him from the Bulandshahr doctor, but he died on the way,” the grandfather sobbed.

The victim’s kin have demanded that strict action should be taken against the woman who kept the dog. A video widely circulated on social media where the child can be seen crying in pain while his father is holding him tight in the ambulance.