Two more rabies deaths in Sindh prompt calls to move stray dogs to shelters
Dawn reported that two dog-bite victims died on October 19, bringing its reported Sindh toll this year to 42 as a medical association representative urged action on free-roaming dogs.
Two dog-bite victims died of rabies in Pakistan's Sindh province on Monday, October 19, bringing the number of recorded deaths there this year to 42, Dawn reported. The deaths prompted a Pakistan Medical Association representative to call for free-roaming dogs to be moved from streets to designated shelters.
Dawn identified one victim as a 38-year-old man from Hyderabad who died at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre in Karachi. An unnamed doctor quoted by the outlet said the man had been bitten on the face four months earlier; whether he received preventive treatment after the bite was unknown. The second victim, identified as 52-year-old Allahbad, was referred from Nawabshah to Liaquat University Hospital in Hyderabad and died Monday afternoon, Dawn reported.
What the proposed response would involve
Dr Mirza Ali Azhar, whom Dawn identified as a Pakistan Medical Association representative, urged authorities to catch free-roaming dogs, isolate them in designated shelters, and arrange for them to be neutered and fed. He called for animal-rights activists and local authorities to work together on that response. His proposal is a call for action; Dawn did not report an adopted government shelter plan.
The two deaths follow other cases reported by Dawn this year, including those of a 38-year-old man from Diplo, a 12-year-old boy from Hyderabad and a man in his 70s from Karachi's Baldia Town. Dawn said experts believe some rabies cases go unreported when patients turn to home remedies or faith healers. Its figure of 42 is a reported count, rather than an independently established total for the province.
What the Karachi bite-wound study found
Azhar pointed to an Indus Hospital study in arguing for urgent action. The hospital says researchers tested samples from 100 patients with fresh, high-risk, unwashed dog-bite wounds and detected rabies virus RNA in up to 64% using a genotype-specific test. That percentage describes the patients' wound samples; it does not measure how many street dogs in Karachi carry the virus. The hospital also reported that washing wounds reduced the presence of viral material.
After a possible rabies exposure, early wound cleansing, prompt vaccination and rabies immunoglobulin when needed can prevent the disease, Dawn reported. Once symptoms appear, rabies is almost invariably fatal. Those stakes make access to timely treatment critical for people bitten by dogs, regardless of whether officials pursue Azhar's shelter proposal.
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Sources and context
- Calls to relocate stray dogs grow as two more die of rabies in SindhDawn
- New method detects rabies virus directly from dog-bite wounds, offering breakthrough for SurveillanceIndus Hospital & Health Network
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.