Thiruvananthapuram: A seven-year-old girl, who contracted rabies despite receiving vaccination after the dog bite, died at a state-run hospital on Monday, hospital sources said. This is the third rabies-infection-related child death in the past month in the state, despite receiving post-bite rabies vaccinations following stray dog attacks.
The latest victim, Niya Faisal, a native of Kunnicode in the neighbouring Kollam district, had been on ventilator support at the Sree Avittom Thirunal (SAT) Hospital here for a few days after she tested positive for rabies infection.
Niya's tragic death happened just days after a six-year-old girl in Malappuram district, Ziya Faris, died of rabies despite having received vaccination.
A 13-year-old girl, hailing from Pullad in Pathanamthitta, also succumbed to the infection recently even after receiving prescribed vaccine doses, sources said.
While shifting her body from the hospital, Niya's wailing mother said on Monday morning that no other child should suffer such a tragedy.
"A large pile of waste is dumped near our home. We repeatedly asked people not to do this, but no one listened to our pleas. Stray dogs, attracted by the waste, mauled my daughter in front of me," she told reporters here.
Stray dogs were seen freely entering even SAT hospital premises and where is the safety for the children coming there for treatment, she asked.
The relatives didn't take the deceased girl's body to her home in adherence with quarantine protocols and buried it in her native village.
SAT hospital authorities later told reporters here that vaccines cannot be blamed in such cases.
S Bindhu, Superintendent, SAT Hospital, said there are chances for the virus to infect the brain before the vaccine antibody becomes effective, depending on the position and intensity of the dog bite, and it might have happened in Niya's case also.