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Published Date: 2012-05-11 19:00:24
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> Rabies - China: (SC), canine, human
Archive Number: 20120511.1130376

RABIES - CHINA: (SICHUAN), CANINE, HUMAN
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Date: Thu 10 May 2012
Source: China Daily [edited]
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-05/10/content_15259411.htm

More than 700 dogs have been put down in Jiajiang county, Sichuan province, in the wake of a rabies case that resulted in the death of a woman. On her way back home from a local market on 24 Apr 2012, the woman, a 63-year-old inhabitant of Taiping village, Mucheng town, was bitten twice by a neighbour's dog on 24 Apr 2012, according to the West China Metropolis Daily. "Because she did not feel ill, my wife only cleaned the wounds with alcohol," recalled her husband.

While working in the fields 5 days later, the woman's shoulders became numb but the feeling relapsed after she raised both her hands. The next day she went to the public health center in Mucheng where a doctor gave her some traditional Chinese medicine for rheumatism. "But before she took the medicine, she felt worse -- on 1 May 2012. She was scared of the sight of water and wanted to vomit," her husband was quoted as saying by the West China Metropolis Daily.

That morning, the woman was hospitalized in the public health center in Mucheng but medics could not find the cause of her symptoms. Her condition deteriorated and she was transferred to the Jiajiang county hospital in the early hours of 3 May 2012. Her husband stated that: "As she did not take a turn for the better, at noon on 4 May 2012 my wife was transferred to an armed police hospital in Leshan, which has Jiajiang under its administration". Doctors there diagnosed the woman was suffering from rabies. She died early in the morning of 5 May 2012.

"It was the 1st case of death from rabies in Mucheng town in 5 years," said Xue Huaijun, chief of the Mucheng town government. The town then launched an emergency response system. It began to put down dogs within a 3 km [2 mi] range of Zhang's home in line with Sichuan provincial regulations pertaining to the prevention and control of rabies. Since then, the town has organized more than 100 people to put down more than 700 dogs in its Taiping and Baimian villages.

"Officials have counted the number of dogs in their villages and owners have been asked to send their dogs to designated sites to be killed," Xue said. The dead dogs have been buried deep in 2, 6 m [20 ft] deep pits after being burned with gasoline and covered with lime, he said.

[Byline: Huang Zhiling]

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[A tragic tale of an inadequate response. The delayed diagnosis of the woman's condition and the absence of prompt post-exposure prophylaxis made the woman's death inevitable. It seems unlikely that the destruction of the 700 dogs in the woman's village of residence will provide any greater security for the inhabitants.

The death of the victim within 12 days after being bitten is unusual and suggests that her injury may have been severe, or that there were other contributory factors.

Sichuan province can be located on the HealthMap/ProMED-mail interactive map at http://healthmap.org/r/2lQ9. - Mod.CP]

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