World Health Organization factfile on rabies.
KUCHING: A patient, who was warded at Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) since August 16 for suspected rabies, has died of the infection yesterday morning.
This was confirmed by the Ministry of Health Malaysia (MOH) director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah in a statement released today.
The victim was a 44-year-old man from Jalan Matang here. Based on the information received, he had no history of dog or animal bites. However, he had hit a wild dog that had bitten his wife on January 13 this year. At that time, the victim had an open wound in his right hand. It was reported that the dog then died.
He did not get any treatment even though he had taken his wife to the hospital for treatment and vaccination following that incident.
The victim started suffering from his right hand in early August and had been receiving outpatient treatment on August 6. His condition worsened since August 11 and he developed symptoms of numbness and weak arms, inability to move, tension in the neck and hydrophobia.
He was taken to SGH Emergency Unit for treatment on August 16.
The test on clinical samples conducted at the Institute of Medical Research (IMR) was positive for rabies virus infection.
The victim’s wife is currently in good health and has completed her four-dose anti-rabies vaccination schedule.
This latest death brings the number of human rabies cases to 13, with a death rate of 92.3 per cent. There is only one patient who has been discharged from the hospital but is suffering from severe neurological complications and is currently being treated at home.