Karachi: A 28-year-old woman from Karachi’s Ajmer Nagri has been admitted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) after developing rabies nearly six weeks after being bitten by a dog and not receiving post-exposure vaccination, taking the number of reported human rabies cases in Sindh this year to 17.
Hospital officials said the woman was brought to JPMC in critical condition and shifted to an isolation ward after exhibiting clinical signs of rabies.
Head of the Accident and Emergency Department at JPMC, Dr Irfan Siddiqui, said the patient had been bitten by a dog around one-and-a-half months ago but did not receive the anti-rabies vaccine, allowing the virus to progress into the fatal stage of the disease.
He said the patient was referred from Ajmer Nagri and that this was the sixth rabies case treated at JPMC during the current year.
According to health authorities, Sindh has reported 17 human rabies cases so far this year, including 11 at Indus Hospital and six at JPMC.
Officials said more than 25,000 dog-bite cases have been reported in Karachi alone this year, underscoring the growing public health threat posed by the increasing stray dog population and inadequate control measures.
Health experts said rabies is entirely preventable if appropriate treatment is started immediately after exposure. They advised that every dog-bite victim should thoroughly wash the wound with soap and running water and seek urgent medical care for anti-rabies vaccination. In severe exposures, rabies immunoglobulin should also be administered.
They warned that once symptoms of rabies develop, the disease is almost invariably fatal despite intensive medical care.
Public health experts urged the Sindh government and municipal authorities to strengthen stray dog population control measures, ensure an uninterrupted supply of anti-rabies vaccines and rabies immunoglobulin, and launch sustained public awareness campaigns to prevent further avoidable deaths.