From Our Correspondent
TURA: In a rare and tragic incident a 33-year-old businessman died from the dreaded rabies infection on Tuesday.
The businessman, who was bitten by his pet dog over three weeks ago in Tura, died of hydrophobia.
Medics say that the man was brought in for medical examination to Tura Civil Hospital after he complained of severe body ache and several other complications that ultimately turned out to be hydrophobia.
In the first week of March he was bitten by a young puppy that he had purchased sometime back. The pup is said to have died some days later.
However, in spite of the bite he did not take the recommended five dose rabies vaccine as mandatory for every human who gets bitten or scratched by cats and dogs.
“Probably, he thought the pup was free of any disease since it was not a stray dog, but it is compulsory for everyone who gets bitten to take the vaccine,” said a doctor from the civil hospital.
This is one of the first cases of rabies in a long time in Tura.
But alarm bells have long been ringing over the lack of responsibility by pet owners who seldom deworm their animals and vaccinate them against rabies.
“It is compulsory to first deworm the cats and dogs and them vaccinate them to provide full protection for a year against the disease because now-a-days dogs have been found to have the virus all throughout their life time without showing any initial symptoms,” said senior veterinary doctor from Tura Dr Verriar K Sangma.
The Tura municipal board is also responsible to ensure people who keep dogs maintain an annual vaccination routine to prevent the spread of rabies from dogs. A large number of homes keep local dogs and do not find it necessary to vaccinate them which in itself is wrong because locals are known to be the main carriers of the rabies virus, say vetenarians.