By NewsDesk @infectiousdiseasenews
Officials in Sindh province reported the death of a 55-year-old woman from rabies after being bit by a dog in September, according to a Samaa TV report today. She was admitted to the hospital on Monday and died not long after.
Image/CDC
This is the 19th human rabies death in Sindh this year.
Sindh has reported a shortage of rabies vaccine this year while the number of stray dogs grow. In Karachi alone, more than 150 dog-bite cases have been reported in major city hospitals on a daily basis. It is not clear if this patient was able to get rabies post-exposure prophylaxis.
Anti-rabies vaccine (ARV) is not available anywhere in Sindh; cases from the rural parts of the province are also referred to Karachi’s big hospitals. Hospitals blame a severe shortage of ARV in the country as the primary reason restricting the correct treatment of the victims. People associated with the vaccine imports highlight the main reasons for the shortage.
There is a global crisis regarding the availability of anti-rabies vaccine after the ones produced by China were not found meeting the security concerns. In the absence of the Chinese vaccine, India became the only country to fill the position. These days India is not able to meet its own demand so it has reduced its ARV export to other countries including Pakistan.
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I also read there was a shortage of rabies profilactic. A woman recently died from a Dog bite as they do not have the medicine because if ttb e debacle with the Chinese vaccines. That really bothers me.